At Deadline

Capital Guardian Trust is considering "significant changes within the firm" in response to concerns about the company's investment results in recent years, Stanley Mavromates, deputy CIO of the $32.6 billion Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board, noted at PRIM's Aug. 5 board meeting. At the meeting, board members expressed concern that two portfolios the manager runs for the fund — a $600 million active EAFE equity portfolio and a $384 million emerging market equity portfolio — have underperformed in the past three year.

Capital Guardian spokesman Chuck Freadhoff said the changes being considered are "more a matter of tweaking the existing process than significantly changing it." Company officials are discussing hiring more investment professionals, having existing professionals focus more on specific regions and finding ways to increase communication among the company's employees around the world, he said.

Enron accused the PBGC of "forum shopping" in the agency's efforts to terminate Enron's four defined benefit plans. In court papers filed Aug. 4 in U.S. District Court in Houston, Enron accused the PBGC of trying to accomplish in the Texas court what it couldn't accomplish in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York, where the company's Chapter 11 protection case is being heard. The PBGC wants to stop Enron's reorganization efforts and terminate its pension plans to preserve their assets. A New York court denied a similar motion.

J.H. "Jay" Cromarty resigned as president of State Street Global Alliance to become Eastern region president of Boston Private Financial Holdings, effective Aug. 16. Joseph Lyons, senior principal, was named acting head of the alliance. SSgA Global Alliance is a joint venture between State Street Global Advisors and the €157 billion (US $189.4 billion) Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP.

Large corporate pension plan funding improved last year, despite significant increases in liabilities, because of $72 billion in company contributions and stronger investment returns, according to a Watson Wyatt report. The funded status of large company plans was an average 88% in 2003, up from 82% in 2002. Liabilities increased in 2003 by nearly $125 billion, or about 11%, but assets were up $172.4 billion, or about 18%, from the previous year.

SBC Communications made a voluntary contribution of $1 billion to its $28.2 billion pension plan in July, according to its 10-Q filing.

United Parcel Service expects to contribute a total of $287 million to its three pension plans through the end of this year, according to the company's second-quarter report. UPS contributed $3 million to the its first-quarter report, the company projected it would contribute $284 million. The UPS pension plans had a total of $7.82 billion in assets as of Sept. 30, 2003, the most recent figure available. They are fully funded.

Goodyear Tire & Rubber contributed $72 million to its $4.13 billion worldwide pension plans through the first six months of the year, according to its latest 10-Q filing. The company plans to contribute a total of $160 million to its $2.9 billion U.S. plan this year, and $325 million to $350 million in 2005. Goodyear also reiterated its expectation that contributions after 2005 will be "substantial"

AK Steel Holding Corp. expects to contribute $45 million to its pension plans in 2004, according to the company's second-quarter report. The pension plans had total assets of $2.58 billion as of Dec. 3.

Harris Associates will close its Oakmark Small Cap Fund on Sept. 30. The firm's management had not been satisfied with its performance, said Kelly Martin, Harris spokeswoman. The fund had about $350 million in assets under management as of July 31. It returned an annualized 5.5% for three years ended June 30, and 6.47% for the five-year period, compared with 12.2% and 12.8%, respectively, for the benchmark Russell 2000 value index. Investors can redeem their shares or move their assets into any other Oakmark fund.

The £1.4 billion Fujitsu Services Pension Fund hired Liontrust Asset Management and Capital International to run £139 million ($256 million) and £71.5 million, respectively, in U.K equities, said David Sillitoe, chairman of the trustees. MFS International (U.K.) and Capital International will manage £139 million and £131 million, respectively, in international equities, and Barclays Global Investors will manage £193 million in passive equities and £105.8 million in active equities. The fund also hired BGI as transition manager, said Mr. Sillitoe. Fund officials made the changes because they wanted to have more balance between actively and passively managed funds.

Fixed-income manager Baring Asset Management's bond portfolio was increased to £40 million, from £21 million.

Partial funding for the changes came from terminating Merrill Lynch Investment Managers because of performance; the manager ran £700 million in equities for the scheme. Additional funding came from terminating Societe Generale Asset Management, also because of performance, Mr. Sillitoe said. The size of the SGAM portfolio could not be learned by press time. Keith Percy, chairman and CEO of SocGen, did not return a call by press time seeking comment; Emma Phillips, a Merrill Lynch spokeswoman, declined comment.

Mercer assisted.

Timex hired NYLIM Retirement Plan Services as bundled provider of its six defined contribution plans, which have a combined $60 million, said Bob Ricci, vice president of human resources. Scudder, the previous bundled provider, was the other finalist.

Barclays Global Investors reported £28 billion ($51 billion) in new net assets under management for the first half of the year, raising its total by 6% to £634 billion since the start of 2004. BGI reported a profit of £157 million for the same period.

The median fund in the Russell/Mellon U.S. Master Trust Universe posted a -0.09% return in the second quarter, ending four straight quarters of positive returns. Nearly half of the 513 plans in the universe, which together have about $1.3 trillion in assets, posted positive returns for the period. Foundations and endowments returned 0.09%; Taft-Hartley plans, 0.02%; corporate plans, -0.1%; and public plans, -0.15%.

Wilshire's Trust Universe Comparison Service, on the other hand, said corporate and public pension funds, endowments and foundations returned a median -0.02% in the second quarter. The median second-quarter return was -0.01% for corporate funds and -0.07% for public funds. Specific returns for endowments and foundations were not broken out. The TUCS Universe has 320 funds with a combined $1.9 trillion in assets.