Ameritech
CHICAGO - The Ameritech Capital Prospects Fund added seven emerging managers to run $10 million each as of July 1: Hourglass Capital Management; Geneva Capital Management; Gries Financial; ICM Asset Management; Rampart Investment Management; Sloate, Weisman, Murray; and Tanaka Capital Management. The $200 million program is overseen by RCB Trust Co. on behalf of the $5.5 billion pension fund of Ameritech Corp.
Bernische Pensionskasse
BERNE, Switzerland - The 3.5 billion Swiss franc ($2.7 billion) Bernische Pensionskasse hired Schroder Capital Management International to run a non-Swiss bond portfolio of about 60 million to 70 million Swiss francs, said Hans-Pieter Wiedmer, vice chairman. Assets were taken from cash.
The hiring is part of an effort to increase the pension fund's international exposure and move toward specialized managers. Since last fall, the fund's target allocation for non-Swiss bonds has increased to 9% from 1.5%, while non-Swiss equities was upped to 10% from 2%.
In addition, three other managers will be converted to specialized from balanced later this year, including Credit Suisse Asset Management, which will become a Swiss equities manager of about 100 million francs.
Pension Portfolio Consulting AG was the consultant.
Brookings Institution
WASHINGTON - Making its first move to hedge funds, the $120 million Brookings Institution endowment hired Pine Street, a hedge fund run by Leon Cooperman, said Ezra K. Zilkha, chairman of the investment committee. The hedge fund was assigned somewhat less than 5%, or less than $6 million, of the endowment's total assets.
Some 40% of the assignment will be in Pine Street's own hedge fund, and 60% will be allocated by Mr. Cooperman to other hedge funds run by other firms for diversity. Cambridge Associates assisted.
Brooklyn Union Gas
NEW YORK - After conducting searches, Brooklyn Union Gas Co. wound up using four of its existing managers to invest 12% of its $500 million defined benefit fund in three new investment areas, said Robert R. Wieczorek, vice president and treasurer, and Thomas M. Riordan, manager-pension trust administration. The fund will assign each of the four managers $15 million.
Marvin & Palmer Associates will invest in emerging markets; the firm already runs $40 million in large country, large-cap international equities. Morgan Stanley Asset Management will invest in international small-cap value; it already runs $30 million in international large-cap value. Denver Investment Advisors and Boston Co. will invest in domestic small-cap value; DIA runs $120 million in domestic equities and bonds Boston Co. runs $55 million in large-cap value.
Smith Barney Inc.'s Consulting Group assisted.
Brown Group
ST. LOUIS - The Brown Group Inc. hired J.P. Bush & Co. to manage a $3 million growth equities portfolio for its $220 million pension fund, said Andrew Rosen, vice president and treasurer. Funding came from reducing the allocation of another manager he wouldn't name. J.H. Ellwood & Associates assisted.
Chamber of Commerce
WASHINGTON - Moving to a specialty approach from a balanced one, the $51 million defined benefit plan of the Chamber of Commerce of the USA hired two managers, changed the assignment of an existing balanced manager and dropped another balanced manager, said Roy C. Fletcher, vice president-finance.
Putnam Investments was hired to run $13 million in equities, and Pacific Income Advisers to run $20 million in fixed income.
Funding came in part from dropping the $6 million fixed-income portion of a balanced fund run by Oppenheimer Capital, which was reassigned as an equity manager and retains the $18 million it ran in equities. The fund dropped INVESCO Capital Management, which ran $27 million in a balanced portfolio. Prudential Securities' consultants assisted.
The Chamber of Commerce also added three managers and dropped three for its $10 million 401(k) plan, said Roy C. Fletcher, vice president-finance.
The plan added Fidelity's Contrafund, a aggressive growth equity fund; Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance's asset allocation fund; and T. Rowe Price Associates' New America growth equity fund.
The fund dropped Janus Capital's growth equities fund, INVESCO's Industrial Income fund and T. Rowe Price's equity income fund. Three options were retained. Buck assisted.
Citizens National Bank of Korea
SEOUL, South Korea - Making its first venture into the area, Citizens National Bank of Korea hired Sakura Dellsher to run a $10 million account in managed futures, said Heung Kee Baek, CNB's head of derivatives. The account is for the bank's own assets.
Cleveland Longshoremen
CLEVELAND - Scrapping its single manager approach, the $6 million Cleveland Longshoremen's Local 1317 pension fund hired four managers and a new custodian bank, said Angeline Rowen, administrator and associate with William M. Mercer Asset Planning.
Gelfand Partners Asset Management will run a $440,000 all-Ohio equity portfolio. In more general domestic equities, Cowen Asset Management will run $1.7 million and Oak Associates, $1.2 million.
Newport Investment Advisors will run $2.7 million in fixed income.
Huntington Trust will be custodian, replacing Society National Bank, which also had been the sole investment manager.
Contra Costa County
CONCORD, Calif. - The $1.4 billion Contra Costa County Employees' Retirement Association will allocate $7.5 million to its existing domestic bond index manager Wells Fargo Nikko and $7.5 million to existing active core bond manager Scudder, Stevens & Clark.
Funding will come from a lump-sum $15 million pre-payment for Contra Costa County's one-year employer contributions for the 12 months that began July 1.
Electrical Contracting
BETHESDA, Md. - The $4 million Electrical Contracting Foundation hired Riggs Investment Management as sole balanced manager. Riggs replaces ASB Capital Management, which was terminated because of differences in management philosophy between the foundation and the firm and because of ASB's performance, said Russ Alessi, executive director of the foundation. Merrill Lynch assisted.
Fresno County Employees
FRESNO, Calif. - The $850 million Fresno County Employees' Retirement System hired its first international equities managers for $35 million each: Templeton Worldwide and Marvin & Palmer Associates. Funding will come from U.S. equities, but no managers are being terminated.
IBEW
COLUMBUS, Ohio - The $64 million International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 683 pension fund selected Seaboard Investment Advisers to manage $10 million in fixed income, said the fund's consultant, Dean Danison with Danison & Associates. Seaboard replaces an unidentified balanced manager.
Kansas City Public School
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The $375 million Kansas City (Mo.) Public School Retirement System picked Global Advisors as its first global bond manager for an $18 million portfolio initially. Funding will come from some reduction in the fund's international equities portfolio.
Asset Consulting Group assisted.
Louisiana Teachers
BATON ROUGE, La. - The $6 billion Louisiana Teachers' Retirement System hired four managers for international equities as part of a review of its manager roster.
Scudder Stevens & Clark, one of two incumbents, and Bank of Ireland will manage $200 million each, said Jennifer Netterville, investment officer. WorldInvest and Putnam Investments will manage $100 million each.
Incumbent Batterymarch was terminated for performance reasons, said James Hadley, director. Holbein Associates assisted.
National Electrical Contractors
BETHESDA, Md. - The $20 million pension fund of the National Electrical Contractors Association hired Riggs Investment Management for a $7 million large-cap equity portfolio and a $3 million small-cap portfolio.
Funding came from eliminating a $10 million balanced portfolio managed by ASB Capital Management. ASB, previously the sole manager was retained to manage a $10 million fixed-income portfolio, said John Grau, executive vice president of the association. The fund also hired Chicago Corp. to manage about $6 million in a balanced portfolio for its $13 million reserve fund; Chicago Corp. replaces ASB.
Oberlin College
OBERLIN, Ohio - More than doubling its foreign equities allocation to 25%, the $275 million Oberlin College endowment hired three international managers, said Charles Tharp, treasurer.
Capital Guardian Trust will run a $45 million core international account, with a mandate to allocate a portion at its discretion to emerging markets. Initially it will allocate $5 million to emerging markets. Oberlin also assigned $15 million to BEA Associates for international growth equities and $5 million to Harbor Capital Advisors' international mutual fund, which he said tends to be value oriented.
Funding came from dropping the Common Fund's international fund, which had been Oberlin's sole international equity manager with 10%, or about $28 million, of the endowment's total assets. The other $41 million in funding came from an equity index fund run by Wells Fargo Nikko Advisors. The endowment retained Wells Fargo, but Mr. Tharp declined to say how much it still manages, saying Oberlin uses it as a transition account.
Oklahoma Law Enforcement
OKLAHOMA CITY - The $255 million Oklahoma Law Enforcement Retirement System hired MacKay-Shields Financial to run a $55 million core growth equity portfolio.
MacKay Shields replaces Sunbank Capital Management.
Oregon Community Foundation
PORTLAND, Ore. - The $105 million Oregon Community Foundation hired Putnam and Miller Anderson & Sherrerd for $15 million each in global balanced portfolios. Funding came from reducing allocations to existing managers, confirmed Brenda VanKegan, director of finance. R.V. Kuhns was the consultant.
Rhone-Poulenc
DEGENHAM, England - The 250 million ($385 million) Rhone-Poulenc pension fund boosted its allocation to bonds, hiring three new managers in the process, said Keith Cunningham, group remuneration and benefits manager.
The plan was virtually all invested in stocks and real estate. Following a review, trustees decided to lower equity holdings to 85%, dropping real estate slightly to 5%, and creating a new 10% allocation to bonds.
Hired to run the 24 million global bond portfolio was Kleinwort Benson Investment Management. In addition, the fund picked First Quadrant to run a 10 million tactical asset allocation portfolio.
Also, the fund dropped Henderson Pension Fund Management because of dissatisfaction with its performance for a 75 million U.K. equity portfolio. Henderson was replaced by Mercury Specialist Management, for a 70 million U.K. equity portfolio.
To fund the shift into bonds, other accounts were reduced. U.K. equity manager Hill Samuel Investment Management was trimmed to 70 million from 78 million, while overseas equity manager Newton Investment Management was reduced to 60 million from 76 million.
Hogg Robinson assisted.
Scottish Freemasons
WASHINGTON - The $8 million endowment of the Ancient & Accepted Scottish Rite of Free Masonry hired Riggs Investment Management and Loomis, Sayles for $4 million balanced portfolios. They replace sole manager Heartland Capital Management, said Ron Larson, a member of the endowment's investment committee. Legg Mason assisted.
Southern Baptist Convention
DALLAS - The $4.5 billion Annuity Board of the Southern Baptist Convention hired two additional international equities managers - Dunedin Fund Managers and Walter Scott & Partners - for accounts of undisclosed size. While Dunedin will employ a value approach, Walter Scott will serve as a growth stock manager, said John Jones, director of investments.
Funding came partly from new cash and partly from the termination of an unnamed international equities manager.
Towers Perrin assisted.
STC Submarine
GREENWICH, England - STC Submarine Systems Ltd. hired Schroder Investment Management to manage its entire 30 million ($46 million) pension fund.
The pension assets were taken from the Northern Telecom Ltd. pension fund, which recently sold the underseas communication manufacturer to Alcatel Cable, part of Alcatel Alstholm CGE, Paris. Alcatel didn't have a pension fund that readily matched the Northern Telecom fund, so a new fund was created.
William M. Mercer assisted.
Syncrude Canada
FORT MCMURRAY, Alberta - The C$320 million ($231 million) pension fund of Syncrude Canada hired Wells Fargo Nikko for an indexed U.S. equities portfolio of C$20 million. Assets came from Jarislowsky Fraser, which was terminated earlier this year, said Ash Kapoor, financial adviser to the fund. Frank Russell Canada assisted.
