Boston Symphony Orchestra
BOSTON -- The Boston Symphony Orchestra hired Brookside to replace Tyndall Institutional Partners as an absolute-return manager for its $160 million core endowment, said Thomas May, director of finance and business affairs.
Brookside will run $6.5 million, funded from the terminated $7.5 million Tyndall portfolio. The allocation for the remaining $1 million is undetermined.
Staff changes at Tyndall brought about the decision, he said.
BPMT
RIJSWIJK, Netherlands -- Stichting Bedrijfspensioenfonds voor de Metaal en Technische Bedrijfstakken has invested $40 million in Donahue Schriber, a private REIT, said John Myers, vice president at Clarion Partners, a real estate adviser to BPMT. The $14 billion pension fund now owns $750 million in U.S. real estate, said Erwin Stouthamer, head of BPMT's international real estate portfolio.
Catholic Health Initiatives
DENVER -- Catholic Health Initiatives hired Asset Strategy Consulting as an investment consultant for its $2.9 billion investment pool, which includes $1.1 billion in cash balance plan assets.
The firm replaces J.H. Ellwood & Associates, which had provided a high level of service but the hospital system "had a need for a change," said Jerry Judd, vice president, treasury services.
Cornell University
ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell University hired Johnson Asset Management to manage $20 million in domestic large-cap value equity for its $2.7 billion endowment fund. The funding for the hire will come from cash. The search was done in-house.
District of Columbia
WASHINGTON -- The District of Columbia government picked Aetna Life Insurance and Annuity to administer and manage its $208 million 401(a) defined contribution plan, which covers 13,000 city employees. Aetna will provide a range of investment options, including mutual funds and institutional portfolios.
Illinois State Universities
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- The $10 billion Illinois State Universities Retirement System allocated $25 million each to New Amsterdam Partners and Rasara Strategies as part of its emerging managers program. New Amsterdam will manage a midcap stock portfolio and Rasara will focus on small-cap to midcap financial stocks. Both firms now are part of the emerging manager of managers program run by Progress Investment.
The fund also will have Strategic Investment Solutions review the private equity investment structure of the fund, and report back to trustees at the September meeting.
Brinson and Progress Investment now manage the $179 million private equity portfolio.
IWA Forest Industry
BURNABY, British Columbia -- The C$1.9 billion (U.S. $1.3 billion) IWA Forest Industry pension plan hired Newcastle to manage C$55 million in a synthetic S&P 500 fund, said Ross Steeves, director of investments.
Funding came from various accounts and a balanced portfolio run by Gryphon, which was terminated because the fund is in the process of increasing its international exposure to 25% of assets, he said. The fund has 20% of its assets invested internationally.
KPN and TPG
GRONINGEN, Netherlands -- KPN and TPG pension funds selected State Street Global Advisors to manage $100 million in a U.S. equities market-neutral strategy.
Most of the assets, which will be managed in two separate portfolios of $50 million each, had been managed in a U.S. midcap strategy run by SSgA for the two Groningen-based pension funds. The funds collectively have 14 billion guilders ($6.5 billion) in assets. A small portion of the funding came from an Standard & Poor's 500 index fund that is run by Barclays Global Investors.
Luby's Inc.
SAN ANTONIO -- Luby's Inc. hired American Express Retirement Services to provide investment management services, record keeping, trust services and employee education for its $4.3 million 401(k) plan.
American Express also is providing similar services for the restaurant chain's new non-qualified deferred compensation plan for highly compensated employees, said Patricia Speck, assistant vice president, profit-sharing and administration. She declined to discuss the plan's former service providers.
The funds that will be offered include: stable capital; an intermediate bond; three lifestyle; small-cap; large-cap; an international fund; and Luby's pooled stock fund.
Machinists, Local 9
BRIDGETON, Mo. -- The Machinists, Local 9, hired Mellon Trust to replace Bankers Trust as custodian for its $500 million defined benefit plan, said Jim Brown, managing trustee.
Mr. Brown said BT's reporting no longer met the fund's needs.
Mitsubishi Trust
TOKYO -- The Mitsubishi Trust and Banking Corp. selected Northern Trust Global Investments to manage an $85 million U.S. equity mandate using Northern's proprietary MarketPower equity style management product, said Steve Fradkin, vice president with Northern Trust.
Mitsubishi Trust will make Northern Trust's equity management style available to its Japanese institutional clients, he said.
National Cooperative Insurance
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- The National Company for Cooperative Insurance chose Northern Trust to provide global custody services for its $80 million general account, said a Northern Trust official. Steven Fradkin, senior vice president with Northern Trust, declined to identify the previous global custodian.
Northwest Packing Co.
VANCOUVER, Wash. -- Northwest Packing Co. hired Columbia as the semi-bundled provider for
its $6 million union and non-union 401(k) plans, according to William Scott, chief financial officer.
Columbia is managing all 11 investment options. It is also providing the education, communication and record keeping through an arrangement with third party administrator, Doherty, Petroff and Associates. The funds are: Columbia Common Stock; Columbia Growth; Columbia International Stock; Columbia Special; Columbia Small Cap; Columbia Real Estate Equity; Columbia Balanced; Columbia U.S. Government Securities; Columbia Fixed Income Securities; Columbia High Yield; and Columbia Daily Income Company.
Before the switch, Northwest Packing had administered the plans in-house and offered four funds, all managed by Columbia: money market; bond; balanced; and growth, Mr. Scott said.
City of Norwich
NORWICH, Conn. -- The City of Norwich hired Fidelity Management Trust to run a $31 million enhanced index portfolio with a Russell 3000 mandate for its $115 million defined benefit plan. The money came from rebalancing, said consultant Julie Moore, with BARRA RogersCasey.
Pensions Trust
LONDON -- The Pensions Trust, London, has hired Northern Trust as the first sole global custodian for its L1.6 billion ($2.5 billion) fund, which provides pension benefits for 3,500 U.K. charities and voluntary organizations. RBS Trust Bank had provided custody on an interim basis for three specialist portfolios totaling just less than L500 million, while individual managers provided their own custody services.
Richard Stroud, chief executive of The Pensions Trust, said a single global custodian will provide better reporting, accounting, reconciliation and compliance monitoring.
Rheem Manufacturing
NEW YORK -- Rheem Manufacturing Co. hired SEI Investments to run its $150 million defined benefit plan as part of SEI's manager-of-managers program, said Dan Lepri, Rheem chief financial officer. Rheem had employed four outside money managers, he said. He declined to identify them.
Rohm and Haas
CROYDON, England -- Rohm and Haas Ltd. pension fund has hired Northern Trust Global Investments to manage three-quarters of its assets in U.K. and international multimanager pooled equity funds. The search represents the first known time that a U.K. pension fund has explicitly sought a multimanager approach.
The L77 million ($122 million) fund terminated Deutsche Asset Management, which ran a L41 million U.K. equity portfolio and J.P. Morgan Investment Management, which ran a L17 million international equity mandate. Both had underperformed their benchmarks during the past three years, said Tony Pound, Rohm and Haas' pension fund manager.
Officials at Deutsche and J.P. Morgan didn't return phone calls.
Skillman Foundation,
DETROIT -- The Skillman Foundation hired Metropolitan West Asset Management as an active bond manager to diversify its $580 million endowment, said Richard Connell, vice president and treasurer. Funding for the $28 million allocation came from reducing an $80 million Lehman Aggregate index fund managed by Barclays Global Investors, he said.
Mr. Connell said the change was due to a restructuring of its bond portfolio that reduced passive and increased active investments.
United Grocers Inc.
PORTLAND, Ore. -- United Grocers Inc. hired Columbia to manage all of the assets in its $30 billion 401(k) plans -- a union and a non-union plan -- and its $37 million defined benefit plan, said Julie Cassidy, director of human resources. The plans will remain balanced, but with slightly heavier weightings in equities. Columbia also will provide trustee, education and communication services for the defined contribution plans. Doherty, Petroff and Associates, a third-party administrator that has an alliance with Columbia, is the record keeper for the 401(k) plans, Ms. Cassidy said.
Both 401(k) plans have the same investment options: Fleet Stable Asset; fixed income; balanced; Galaxy large company index; growth equity; international stock; and the small-cap fund, she said. The Fleet and Galaxy funds are offered by Fleet Financial Group, Columbia's parent company. The stable value is a commingled pool or collective investment fund, she said. Previously, U.S. Trust had managed all three plans' assets and Merrill Lynch was record keeper. United Grocers made the change to save on fees, she said.
U.S. Army NAF
ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- The U.S. Army NAF Retirement Plan Trust hired Janus as its first core midcap U.S. equity manager to run $55 million for diversification, said William Brantley, consultant to the $500 million trust.
University of North Carolina
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has committed $18 million to three private equity funds, said Mark Yusko, chief investment officer. The $800 million endowment fund committed $3 million to Accel Partners; $7.5 million to Softbank Technology Ventures; and $7.5 million to Silver Lake Partners. Separately, the endowment has cut $15 million from its U.S. fixed-income portfolio managed by Wachovia Asset Management, investing that in a REIT strategy run by European Investors. The goal is to reduce fixed income to 16% of assets from 33%, Mr. Yusko said. Wachovia is still managing $75 million in domestic fixed income for the endowment.
Vancouver Clinic
VANCOUVER, Wash. -- Vancouver Clinic hired Columbia to provide bundled services for its $30 million 401(k) plan. The clinic had been a Columbia client before, then switched to Northern Trust, and now has switched back, said Jim Hall, chief financial officer.
Vassar College
POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. -- The $580 million Vassar College endowment fund hired State Street Global Advisors to run $40 million in a Russell 1000 index fund, replacing an active value manager, said Jay Yoder, director of investments. He would not name the terminated manager.
Vassar also committed $10 million to Commonfund Capital's New Leaders Fund, a private equity partnership that invests in first- and second-time, or new and repeat, funds. The money will come from cash.
