Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Co., St. Paul, is one of the pension fund investors in Amaranth Advisors, the multistrategy hedge fund manager that announced it could sustain losses of as much as 35% after natural gas futures fell last week. 3M has invested less than 1% of its $9.2 billion pension plan in Amaranth, said Jacqueline Berry, a company spokesman. Ms. Berry said she did not have information about the pension fund's plans regarding its Amaranth investment, and Sheila Berube, manager-benefit fund investments, was not available to comment.
Separately, Amaranth founder Nicholas Maounis told investors by e-mail that the firm "concluded a negotiated transaction which transfers the entirety of our energy portfolio to a third party. Additional information will follow shortly." Shawn H. Pattison, an Amaranth spokesman, declined to identify the third party. Published reports on Tuesday pointed to Citadel Investment Group as the likely buyer. Scott Rafferty, Citadel managing director-investor relations, would not comment.
