Clipper Fund Inc.'s independent directors approved a "shortlist of investment management firms for further evaluation" to replace Pacific Financial Research, which advised the $6.9 billion fund. The fund will choose a new investment adviser by the end of November, according to a news release. Clipper Fund hired consulting firm Wilshire Associates almost two weeks ago to assist its independent directors after top PFR executives announced they would leave the firm at the end of the year. Kim Shepherd, Wilshire spokeswoman, would not identify the firms on the shortlist. PFR parent Old Mutual Asset Management assigned subsidiary Barrow Hanley, Mewhinney & Strauss to effectively take control of all PFR assets.
"We will evaluate Barrow, Hanley as a potential manager," said F. Otis Booth, one of the fund's independent directors, in today's news release. "We are concentrating our search on firms that will continue the investment approach that Clipper Fund has followed over the years."
