Financial Times Mandate articles from January 2003

Financial Times Mandate archives from January 2003

News: Arizona adds to US large-cap portfolio.(Arizona State Retirement System)(Brief Article)
January 13, 2003... The Arizona State Retirement System (ASRS) has awarded large-cap US equity mandates totalling about $1.7bn to five asset managers. Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Intech have won large-cap growth mandates. LSV Asset Management and State...

News: German bank shares out E720m multifund.(HVB Group)
January 13, 2003... HVB Group is awarding up to e720m to 12 managers in the first launch of a multifund by a German bank. Each of the fund's 12 portfolios will have two managers, with each portfolio to receive around e60m as a start-up investment from the...

News: Lazard and Lombard Odier lose $130m.(Lazard Asset Management)(Brief Article)
January 13, 2003... US investment adviser Asset-mark has dropped Lazard Asset Management and Lombard Odier from $130m in mandates due to under-performance and personnel changes. The companies had been running Assetmark's global equity mutual fund and were...

News: Brent shifts oe45m abroad for active equities solution.(London Borough of Brent pension scheme )(Brief Article)
January 13, 2003... The GBP300m London Borough of Brent pension scheme has switched out of UK equities in favour of an active overseas equity portfolio. The local authority scheme has moved approximately GBP45m from its in-house, index-tracking UK equity fund...

Editorial: Pension funds face their biggest challenge.(Brief Article)
January 13, 2003... The pressure to make pension assets work harder has never been greater. So comments investment consultant, Watson Wyatt, in its Global Investment Review 2003. Amid persistent stock market volatility, investors are advised to diversify away from...

News: In brief - Liberty hedges its bets in volatile markets.(Liberty Ermitage )(Brief Article)
January 13, 2003... Liberty Ermitage has launched a multi-strategy fund of hedge funds product investing across both directional and spread-based hedge fund strategies. The Global Strategy fund has been designed to produce significant returns in volatile...

News: In brief - Britannic blames equity crash for major job cuts.(Britannic Asset Management)(Brief Article)
January 13, 2003... Britannic Asset Management has lost GBP3bn in assets under management in the last year following dire returns from the equity markets. The company claims it remains profitable but it has been forced to cut staff costs by 12 per cent. ...

News: In brief - UK pension funds despair over returns.(Brief Article)
January 13, 2003... UK pension funds have produced negative returns for the third consecutive year according to the Russell/Mellon Caps estimate of pension fund performance. This is the first time since records began that pension funds have seen such...

News: In brief - CSFB creates suite of US government indices.(Credit Suisse First Boston)
January 13, 2003... Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) has launched a family of US government indices to track the liquid, tradable portion of US government and agency bond markets. The suite is comprised of the liquid US agency index, the US Treasury index, the US...

News: In brief - Florida to farm out $600m to two managers.(Florida State Board of Administration)(Brief Article)
January 13, 2003... The $125bn Florida State Board of Administration (FSBA) has put $600m worth of mandates up for grabs. The FSBA is looking to hire a manager to run a $300m private equity brief following its decision to establish a venture capital program....

News: In brief - CLARIFICATION.(Correction Notice)
January 13, 2003... In an article entitled "Choosing the right custodian" (November 4 2002) Daiwa Securities Trust and Banking Europe (DSTBE) was given a credit rating of BB+ in a table of ratings accredited to Standard & Poor's (S&P). We are happy to confirm...

News: SocGen loses oe200m Norfolk brief.(Societe Generale Asset Management; Norfolk County Council )(Brief Article)
January 13, 2003... Poor performance and staff reshuffles at Societe Generale Asset Management (SocGen) have prompted Norfolk County Council to cast around for a new active UK equity manager. The local authority has put out a GBP200m (e307m) tender for the...

News: Managers fight to control Dublin Courts contract.(Dublin Courts Service fund)(Brief Article)
January 13, 2003... The battle for control of the e760m Dublin Courts Service fund intensified last week as the service drew up a short list of five fund managers. The court, whose fund comprises money held on behalf of wards of court, wants the assets...

News: Philadelphia sizes up hedge funds and drops Denver.(public employees' retirement system; Denver Investment Advisers )(Brief Article)
January 13, 2003... Philadelphia's public employees' retirement system is considering moving into hedge funds with an initial investment of up to $190m. Tony Johnson, chief investment officer, said the fund, which will make a decision in February or March,...

News: AP4 hires managers to run active equities.(Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund)(Brief Article)
January 13, 2003... The Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund (AP4) has switched $558m of Asian equities from passive to active management with three new mandates to external managers. Martin Currie will manage Y48bn (e387m) in active Japanese equities, while...

Comment and Analysis: Employees real victims of pensions crisis.
January 13, 2003... The past three years have been bleak for occupational pension schemes and it seems unlikely that 2003 will offer any respite. The diabolical performance of the equity markets has left many finance directors, pensions managers and members of...

News: UK SRI research firms steal lead in Sweden.(socially responsible investment)(Swedish bank Forenings Sparbanken's pension fund)(Brief Article)
January 13, 2003... UK-based socially responsible investment (SRI) research firms have been sweeping up new mandates in Sweden. Scottish Widows Investment Partnership's (Swip) win of a e31m SRI brief from Swedish bank Forenings Sparbanken's pension fund has...

News: Frank Russell splits Glasgow brief.(Frank Russell Inc.)(Glasgow Investment Management)(Brief Article)
January 13, 2003... Frank Russell has replaced Glasgow Investment Management with SVM and Threadneedle Asset Management on a GBP200m (e308m) equity mandate in its GBP1bn UK multi-manager portfolio. Steve Wiltshire, chief investment officer at Frank Russell,...

News: Currie favoured for oe25m Japan mandate.(Martin Currie Inc.)(Hypovereinsbank AG)(Brief Article)
January 13, 2003... Martin Currie has picked up a $25m Japan long-only mandate with the multi- manager offering of German-based Hypovereinsbank. The appointment sees Martin Currie take up sole position as Japan manager in Hypovereinsbank's global multi-manager...

News: MLC to manage A$100m Pilkington super fund.
January 13, 2003... MLC, the fund management arm of National Australia Bank, has secured the A$100m (e55m) Pilkington super fund as a client, in the latest move by Australian corporate superannuation funds into implemented investment. MLC won after an...

News: In brief - Edinburgh puts oe55m contract out to tender.(City of Edinburgh Lothian Pension fund )(Brief Article)
January 13, 2003... The GBP1.7bn City of Edinburgh Lothian Pension fund has put its GBP55m (e84.6m) emerging markets portfolio out to tender. The fund said it was not unhappy with current emerging markets manager Lloyd George Investments, but that it had...

News: In brief - Storming success leads to All Weather launch.(Platinum Capital Management)(Brief Article)
January 13, 2003... US-based Platinum Capital Management is to launch two hedge funds after its Washington long/short fund was placed on the approved list of seven international banks. The long/short fund is managed by New York-based Washington Asset...

News: New Year brings cold comfort for UK investment managers.(Britannic Asset Management)(Merrill Lynch Investment Managers)(Brief Article)
January 13, 2003... The New Year has brought a fresh swathe of UK fund manager job losses, with Britannic Asset Management losing five investment managers and Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (MLIM) reducing its UK equity and fixed income teams. Terry Ewing,...

News: AMP Henderson to lose 100 staff in wider parental cuts.(Brief Article)
January 13, 2003... AMP Henderson Global Investors will shed 100 jobs globally and within Australia over the next year, as its parent embarks on swingeing cost cutting and strategic realignments. Newly-appointed chief executive Andrew Mohl has ordered a review...

News: Japan shuns domestic market.(Brief Article)
January 13, 2003... Japanese institutions reduced their investments in domestic fixed income by 15 per cent last year and increased spending on international bonds. Domestic fixed income assets under management declined to Y206,000bn (e1666bn), while...

News: Nordea axe falls on client services.(Nordea Investment Management)(Brief Article)
January 13, 2003... Stockholm-based Nordea Investment Management is to cut all services to institutional clients, other than investment management, as part of a restructure that will lead to 15 per cent of its employees being made redundant in 2003. Tomas...

How the deal was won: Investec reigns in Essex parade.(Essex County Council)
January 13, 2003... Beauty parades may have been given a bad name by the controversy surrounding the Miss World competition, but they remain an essential part of bidding for mandates. So Investec Asset Management was delighted to show off its assets to a...

News: Shepherds awards custody of oe7m Tep to Close Brothers.(Shepherds Financial)(Royal Bank of Scotland International )(Close Brothers)(Brief Article)
January 13, 2003... London-based market maker and fund manager Shepherds Financial has switched custodian for its traded endowment fund (Tep) from Royal Bank of Scotland International to Close Brothers. The mandate to act as custodian for the GBP7m (e10.7m)...

News: Oppenheimer drops BNY in favour of JPMorgan.(Oppenheimer Funds)(Bank of New York)(JPMorgan Investor Services)(Brief Article)
January 13, 2003... Oppenheimer Funds has dropped the Bank of New York (BNY) in favour of JPMorgan Investor Services for a custody mandate covering more than GBP35bn (e53.8bn)in mutual fund assets. The company said it had replaced BNY because it felt that...

News: ABN appointed as custodian for E1.1bn Gerling NCM fund.(ABN AMRO Mellon)(Gerling NCM Credit und Finance AG)
January 13, 2003... Gerling NCM has replaced Deutsche Bank with ABN Amro Mellon as custodian for its e1.1bn fund because ABN offered more services. Gerling, the world's second largest provider of credit insurance, was created following the consolidation of the...

News: Clydesdale to change course after Mellon loss.(Clydesdale Bank PLC)(Mellon Financial Corporation)(Brief Article)
January 13, 2003... Clydesdale Bank is to move into fund administration and master custody for pension funds following the loss of its GBP29bn custody brief with Mellon Financial Corporation. A review of the bank's National Custodian Services unit has been...

News: In brief - Tilney outsources back-office to the Bank of New York.(Tilney Investment Management)(Bank of New York)(Brief Article)
January 13, 2003... January will see the outsourcing of Liverpool-based Tilney Investment Management's back-office services to the Bank of New York (BNY). About 100 employees have switched from Tilney to BNY as part of the mandate. It is expected that BNY...

News: In brief - BGI's iShares to launch iBoxx-linked fund range.(Barclays Global Investors subsidiary iShares)(Brief Article)
January 13, 2003... Barclays Global Investors subsidiary iShares is launching a range of European fixed income exchange-traded funds (ETFs) benchmarked to the iBoxx indices. The initial funds will be available to institutional and retail customers from the...

People News: Schroders beefs up credit analyst desk.(Schroder Investment Management)(Brief Article)
January 13, 2003... Schroder Investment Management is hoping to boost its global credit business with a string of new appointments. Richard Brown has been recruited as head of pan-European credit research from NatWest Markets and will report to Jack Davis,...

People News: Back in the USA - MLIM stateside.(Merrill Lynch Investment Managers)(Brief Article)
January 13, 2003... Merrill Lynch Investment Managers' decision to move its seven-strong London- based US equities team to its head office in Princeton, New Jersey was made in September last year, but held up by the events of 11 September. The team, lead by...

People News: European reshuffle for Morgan Stanley.(Morgan Stanley Investment Management)(Brief Article)
January 13, 2003... Morgan Stanley Investment Management has made three new appointments to its European and global equity teams. Paras Dodhia joins Morgan Stanley's global franchise team from JPMorgan where he was part of the technology sector. Dodhia will...

People News: Knight voted in as IMMFA chairman.(Peter Knight)(David Hynes)(Institutional Money Markets Funds Association)(Brief Article)
January 13, 2003... The Institutional Money Markets Funds Association has replaced David Hynes with JPMorgan's Peter Knight as chairman of the association. Mr Knight, who is head of liquidity funds at JPMorgan Fleming Asset Management, was voted in as the new...

People News: Software provider to make transition to US.(COR Risk Solutions)(Brief Article)
January 13, 2003... A London-based portfolio analytics software provider has appointed an American business development director to boost US sales. COR Risk Solutions has recruited Rene Robillard to extend COR's grip on the North American market. ...

Portfolio: Asset Allocation - Europe - SRI encouraged to be an active choice.(Shropshire County Council Pension Fund)(socially responsible investment)
January 13, 2003... Index funds and ethical investment might not be the most conventional bedfellows, but an approach that favours engagement over exclusion is winning more UK pension clients. Since passive funds by definition hold all the constituents of...

Portfolio: Asset Allocation - Asia-Pacific - Suncorp track record too good to pass up.(Catholic Superannuation and Retirement Fund)
January 13, 2003... Fears of a meltdown in global equity markets has helped drive yields on Australian government bonds to their lowest levels in six months, and driven new business towards Australian fixed interest managers. Brisbane-based Suncorp Investment...

Portfolio: Asset Allocation - Americas - Nordic's prudence secures $50m fund.
January 13, 2003... Nordic Capital is the kind of buyout firm institutions love. It is 13 years old with five funds to its name - pretty long in the tooth for a private equity manager. It has a state-of-the-art website detailing the companies it invests...

Portfolio: Market Analysis - View from Europe - Maintaining optimism in the face of uncertain times.
January 13, 2003... The October/November rally in high risk stocks was reversed in December, despite the European Central Bank (ECB) delivering a 50 basis points rate cut, and in the face of tradition that has December and January as the two strongest months in...

Portfolio: Market Analysis - View from the Americas - Assured returns in a turbulent market environment.(Brief Article)
January 13, 2003... The US equity market's recent advance has pleased, if mystified, many investors. Despite the market's run, many US companies continue to struggle. The recent corporate reporting cycle included accounting, pension funding and litigation...

Portfolio: Market Analysis - View from Asia-Pacific - Asian bourses feel effects of flagging US dollar.(Brief Article)
January 13, 2003... The past couple of weeks have seen slowing volumes across Asia ahead of year- end. With the exception of Indonesia, Asian markets drifted off November's highs, following the lead of the US bourses. Key to this are concerns over the US dollar,...

Mandate Research: Investment consulting - Accountability - Putting transparency at the top of the agenda.
January 13, 2003... The role of the investment consultant has become increasingly controversial over the past 18 months. The publication of the Myners report into institutional investment practice in the UK intensified the debate surrounding performance...

Mandate Research: Investment consulting - Accountability - Debating the merits of manager of managers.
January 13, 2003... The manager of manager approach has been one of the success stories of institutional investment. Providers offer pension funds a one-stop shop for all their manager selection, monitoring and hiring and firing demands. In particular,...

Mandate Research: Cash Management - Short-term money markets - Breaking barriers to cash markets.
January 13, 2003... The growth of the Eurobond market in the 1980s had an enormous impact on another related market - syndicated bank loans. As corporates and other institutions discovered, they could access the market for funds directly, thereby bypassing the...

Mandate Research: Information technology - Clearing and settlement - Consolidating a global standard.
January 13, 2003... Risk management has played a prominent part in any discussions about institutional fund management over the past year, partly because of the terrorist attacks on the US on September 11 2001. Clearing and settlement have not been immune to...

Mandate Research: Information technology - Clearing and settlement - Curtailing expenditure on automative processing.
January 13, 2003... Fund management companies are optimistic that the costs of clearing and settlement in Europe will come down over the next couple of years, as automation services become more prevalent and consolidation gathers pace. "We are hopeful that...

Regional Survey: Europe - Belgium - Shifting the balance of risk.
January 13, 2003... Pension fund managers in Belgium are focusing their attention on a spate of legislative changes about to impact the pensions landscape. The Belgian pension market is relatively small at E11.7bn and consists only of corporate pension funds....

Oxfordshire switches from balanced to specialist style.(Oxfordshire County Council's pension fund)
January 13, 2003... Oxfordshire County Council's pension fund is to axe its two balanced managers following an asset/liability study. The local authority will replace both Schroder Investment Management and Deutsche Asset Management with specialist managers....

CSAM consolidates regional divisions.(Credit Suisse Asset Management )(Brief Article)
January 13, 2003... Credit Suisse Asset Management (CSAM) has streamlined its global operating regions from five to three in an effort to exploit its cross-border strengths. The Swiss division has merged into Europe and Japan and Australia are now part of a...

Governance issues work to Hermes' benefit.(California Public Employees' Retirement System)(Hermes Pensions Management Ltd.)(Brief Article)
January 13, 2003... Corporate governance concerns triggered by a series of international accounting scandals are helping to boost new business for London-based Hermes Pensions Management. The latest injection comes from the $132bn California Public Employees'...

Third-party animals: Gartmore reveals its colours.(Brief Article)
January 13, 2003... Times are obviously tough for the asset management community with some groups failing to live up to the tradition of sending out freebies in the run-up to Christmas. Indeed some fund managers seem to feel it's payback time for all the "comps"...

Third-party animals: PGGM votes for Xmas spirit.(Brief Article)
January 13, 2003... Pop Idols. The Rivals. Big Brother. The trend is clear: TV programmes that determine the fate of their contestants by vote are in fashion. But did you know the craze has swept all the way to Santa's bolthole in the North Pole? Dutch pension...

Third-party animals: Not afraid to spend a penny.(Brief Article)
January 13, 2003... Gartmore staff are a cheery bunch. Even after a few drinks at their Christmas party they still have little but praise for their employer. One of the firm's broker sales managers reveals that his affection for Gartmore partly stems from his...

Conferences.
January 13, 2003... - Risk Management for Pension Funds, London, UK, January 16 2003 One-day course run by SPS Conferences Contact +44(0)1438 712345 - Transfer Agency Forum, Dublin, Ireland, January 29-30 2003 Two-day course run by IIR Finance ...

News: Nationwide oe650m overhaul underway.(Nationwide Building Society Pension Fund )(Brief Article)
January 27, 2003... Nationwide Building Society Pension Fund is to issue tenders for GBP490m of equity mandates in March after it has appointed its first GBP160m specialist fixed interest managers. The new managers, which Nationwide hopes will be managing the...

News: UBS captures oe120m Cambridgeshire brief.(UBS Asset Management Inc.)(Cambridgeshire County Council Pension Fund)
January 27, 2003... UBS Asset Management has won a GBP120m equity mandate after Cambridgeshire County Council Pension Fund dropped JPMorgan Fleming Asset Management (JPMF) and changed its asset allocation. After beating three other asset managers on the...

News: San Francisco commits $200m to convertibles.(San Francisco City and County Employees Retirement System)(Brief Article)
January 27, 2003... San Francisco City and County Employees Retirement System has appointed two US-based fund managers to run active convertible portfolios worth $200m. New York-based Advent Capital Management is to start running a convertibles mandate from...

News: Rothschild casualty of Calor Gas investment review.(Brief Article)
January 27, 2003... The GBP243m Calor Gas pension fund has dropped Rothschild Asset Management from a UK equity mandate following a review of its investment arrangements. Following the termination of Rothschild's contract, the undisclosed brief was shared out...

Editorial: Europe's managers suffer for undying optimism.(asset management )(Brief Article)
January 27, 2003... European asset managers stand accused of being the architects of their own misery. A failure to drastically cut costs has led to a punishing 48 per cent fall in profitability. The damning findings are contained in McKinsey & Company's...

News: In brief - John Lewis buys into SSgA's SRI product.(John Lewis Partnership PLC)(State Street Global Advisors Inc.)(Brief Article)
January 27, 2003... John Lewis Partnership, a UK retailer, has become the first private sector institutional client of State Street Global Advisor's (SSgA) socially responsible index product. SSgA has maintained its existing GBP400m UK and overseas equity...

News: In brief - NTGA recruits Goldman to run equity accounts.(Northern Trust Global Advisors)(Goldman Sachs Asset Management)(Brief Article)
January 27, 2003... Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM) has been appointed sub-advisor to two new equity accounts totalling GBP43m for Northern Trust Global Advisors (NTGA), the multi-manager business of Northern Trust. One new equity account is for a...

News: In brief - Flintshire farms out oe450m custody brief.(Flintshire County Council Clwyd Pension Fund)(Brief Article)
January 27, 2003... The GBP450m Flintshire County Council Clwyd Pension Fund has put out to tender its global custody mandate. The brief is currently held by Deutsche Bank, which sold its custody business to State Street in November last year. State Street did...

News: In brief - Equity funds shrug off negative returns.(Brief Article)
January 27, 2003... International equity funds closed last year with an encouraging 6.4 per cent quarterly return following two consecutive negative quarters, according to InterSec Research's preliminary EAFE Plus results. Annual performance ranged from -22.8...

News: In brief - Northern Trust named custodian for Applera.(Brief Article)
January 27, 2003... Applera Corporation has appointed Northern Trust as its custodian for its $450m defined benefit pension plan. Eric Vatne, finance director of the life sciences company, said the issues it considered included how well benefit payments would...

News: Florida switches lending to Dresdner.(State Board of Administration of Florida)(Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein)(Brief Article)
January 27, 2003... The State Board of Administration of Florida has transferred a securities lending mandate from Deutsche Bank to Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein after the former was acquired by State Street last year. "We already had quite large exposure to...

News: T Rowe Price pinches $150m from Applegate.(Nicholas-Applegate Capital Management)
January 27, 2003... T Rowe Price International has snatched four Frank Russell Company emerging market growth mandates from Nicholas Applegate Capital Management worth $150m. The mandates from Frank Russell, which has $647m invested in emerging markets equity...

News: Mistra's two pass positive screening.(Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research)(Brief Article)
January 27, 2003... The Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research (Mistra) has awarded a SKr100m (E11m) equity mandate to T Rowe Price and Innovest Strategic Value Advisors. The mandate will follow the strategy behind the T Rowe Price Global...

News: Martin Currie active team to run oe1.25m in Edinburgh equities.(City of Edinburgh Lothian Pension Fund)(Brief Article)
January 27, 2003... Edinburgh-based asset manager, Martin Currie, has won a new GBP125m specialist UK equities mandate from the GBP1.7bn Scottish-based City of Edinburgh Lothian Pension Fund. The portfolio, to be managed by Martin Currie's UK active team, has...

News: Novaster eyes Spanish market.(Frank Russell Co.)(Brief Article)
January 27, 2003... Frank Russell Company has struck a distribution agreement with consultant firm, Novaster, to offer multi-manager portfolios to pension schemes in Spain, Portugal and Latin America. Novaster lacked the resources and expertise to monitor a...

Comment and Analysis: Few managers maintain grip on operational costs.(while a survey shows an expected increase in outsourcing, managers need to focus on operational costs)
January 27, 2003... Are outsourcing providers about to cash in on the back-office blues affecting a cost-burdened fund management industry? Custodian banks and other outsourcing companies will be encouraged to learn that the majority of respondents to a recent...

News: Northern Trust takes over $1.5bn index tracking brief.(Northern Trust Global Investments)(Illinois State Board of Investments)(Brief Article)
January 27, 2003... US-based Northern Trust Global Investments (NTGI) has won a $1.5bn mandate to run an S&P 500 index tracking fund for the Illinois State Board of Investments (ISBI). The mandate, which NTGI won from Barclays Global Investors, is to...

News: PIRC wins Yorkshire renewals.(Pensions Investments Research Consultants)(South Yorkshire Pensions Authority)(South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Authority)(Brief Article)
January 27, 2003... The GBP2bn South Yorkshire Pensions Authority and the GBP100m South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Authority have renewed their mandates with Pensions & Investments Research Consultants (PIRC). The three-year corporate governance and...

News: Investors see templates as transparency solution.
January 27, 2003... Hedge funds are attempting to create a series of reporting templates to address concerns from institutional investors about a lack of transparency in position level reporting. A survey shows that while a third of investors still believe...

News: Value of FTSE 100 plummets.(Financial Times Stock Exchange)(Brief Article)
January 27, 2003... The top 100 pension funds in the UK shed a massive GBP68bn in value during 2002, leaving total deficits at GBP72bn. Consultants UBSL found that the FTSE 100 companies' pension schemes are now worth GBP59bn, with many final salary schemes...

News: In brief - F&C amalgamates global and US equity desks.(F and C Management Ltd.)(Brief Article)
January 27, 2003... F&C Management has combined its US and global equity desks as it aims to win more institutional business in these areas, which comprise 10 per cent of its e92bn assets under management. Following the integration, fund manager Bart Norrdman...