Sara Lee Corp., Downers Grove, Ill., appointed Legal & General Investment Management America to manage a liability-driven investing overlay covering its U.S. plan's $1.6 billion in assets, said Edwin Koopmans, Sara Lee's director of treasury.
The company, with worldwide pension assets of about $4 billion, also hired LGIMA to manage a separate U.S. credit portfolio valued around $110 million. LGIM already manages U.K. pension assets for Sara Lee. “We have had a good experience with (LGIM) in the U.K., so we decided to hire them in the U.S. as well,” Mr. Koopmans said.
He declined to specify the size and asset class of LGIM's mandate for Sara Lee in the U.K.
The mandate is LGIM's first LDI mandate in the U.S. since the manager made key hires last year to win more U.S. institutional business. LGIM is one of the largest LDI managers in the U.K., with £29.9 billion ($46 billion) in LDI assets, and £315 billion in total assets, under management at the year-end 2009.
