Philadelphia Municipal Pension Fund, with $2.82 billion in assets, put two domestic small-cap managers, J&W Seligman and George D. Bjurman & Associates, on probation because of performance concerns.
The fund has 5.8% of its assets in domestic small-cap with three managers; Seligman has $36 million; Dreyfus Management, $77 million; and Bjurman, $52.3 million.
Trustees of the fund have been worried about the managers' performance for some time; minutes of the November investment committee meeting noted Seligman was having `a very, very difficult period,'' but that Bjurman's performance had shown a ``tremendous reversal'' and was 50% ahead of the index for the year.
Three Norwest Corp. business units that provide trust services to institutional investors have been combined into a new unit, master trust and custody services, which oversees master trust assets totaling $100 billion.
The corporate custody, financial institutions custody and master trust divisions were combined to form the new unit under Steven Greenstein, vice president. Mr. Greenstein formerly managed the master trust division. The move was made to leverage the internal resources of the three divisions into a single unit, said Mr. Greenstein.
Pensioenfonds PGGM, Zeist, the Netherlands, received approval from its board to hire a global TAA manager, said Marinus Keijzer, chief economist and strategist for the fund.
Mr. Keijzer said implementation will be sometime off, and it's too early to say how much the 65 billion guilder ($34.3 billion) pension fund for Dutch health-care workers will allocate to the strategy.
HIRINGS
New York Common Retirement Fund, Albany, committed $45 million to Heritage Fund II, a fund that specializes in providing financing for family-owned firms with liquidity and ownership transition issues, said New York state Comptroller H. Carl McCall. Funding will come from cash flow. Mr. McCall is sole trustee of the $78 billion fund.
Virginia Retirement System, Richmond, agreed to make new investments in venture capital and real estate. The fund, with $24.6 billion in assets, decided to invest up to $30 million in the Heritage Fund II, and also put $50 million each into the OCM Real Estate Opportunities Fund and the Lazard Freres Real Estate Fund II, said Bill Sullivan, a VRS spokesman. Funding will come from cash, said Nancy Everett, deputy CIO.
Georgia Tech Foundation, Atlanta, hired two international equity managers, said Patrick J. McKenna, secretary. Templeton Investment Counsel received $15 million for an active fund, and State Street Global Advisors got $10 million for an index fund.
The foundation has $317 million in assets.
Kent County Council Superannuation Fund, Maidstone, England, picked Prudential Portfolio Managers to run a £100 billion bond portfolio, said Surjit Lale, investments manager for the £1.05 billion ($1.72 billion) fund. The portfolio will be invested 60% in U.K. index-linked gilts and 40% in U.K. conventional bonds, but PPM will have discretion to invest up to 15% in overseas bonds. Assets will come from bond and balanced mandates managed by Baring Investment and PDFM.
Watson Wyatt advised on the search.
Haworth Inc., Holland, Mich., hired PIMCO and Loomis Sayles as fixed-income managers for its $78.3 million master pension trust fund. PIMCO will manage $13.8 million in its Total Return Bond Fund, and Loomis Sayles will handle $3.5 million in a bond fund. Sanford Bernstein had managed the PIMCO portfolio, but was not meeting performance expectations, said Bruce Jackson, manager of domestic finance and investments. Assets for the Loomis portfolio will be from contributions.
Sanford Bernstein officials did not return calls seeking comment.
Fund Evaluations Group assisted.
St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, Houston, selected Callan Associates as its first full-service investment consultant, subject to finance committee approval. Callan will provide investment consulting and asset allocation services for the hospital's estimated $600 million in combined assets, according to a hospital official, who declined to name other finalists.
WHO'S NEWS
R. Nevill Brooke, director of IBM Retirement Funds, Europe, Feltham, England, is leaving his post April 5 and likely will seek work as a pension consultant. Martin Jack, a senior financial manager with IBM's U.K. operation, will take over from Mr. Brooke.
As head of IBM Europe's internal pension consulting unit, Mr. Brooke offers investment advice to a dozen European and African IBM pension funds with $16.5 billion in assets. Mr. Brooke said he plans to remain in the consulting area; he has not yet sought any positions
