Financial Times Mandate articles from May 2003

Financial Times Mandate archives from May 2003

News: Illinois fund severs $310m tie with Applegate and TCW.
May 5, 2003... Nicholas Applegate and Trust Company of the West (TCW) have lost mandates totalling more than $310m for performance reasons. The $7bn Illinois State Board of Retirement has terminated the US equity briefs and temporarily placed the bulk of...

News: Oxfordshire switches oe500m from balanced to specialist management.(Brief Article)
May 5, 2003... Schroders and Deutsche Asset Management have lost balanced briefs totalling nearly GBP500m in a radical reshuffle at Oxfordshire County Council Pension Fund. UBS Global Asset Management, Baillie Gifford, Alliance Bernstein and Legal &...

News: NYSTRS extends private equity share.(Brief Article)
May 5, 2003... The $66bn New York State Teachers Retirement System (NYSTRS) has committed a total of $200m to two private equity limited partnerships and a real estate fund. NYSTRS will invest up to $100m in the Hines US Office Value Added Fund, up to...

News: Gartmore scoops e150m Swiss brief.(Gartmore Investment Management equities management deal from Swiss Social Security Fund)(Brief Article)
May 5, 2003... Gartmore Investment Management has secured a E150m European equities brief from the Swiss Social Security Fund in Zurich. The mandate, in small and mid-caps, will be run by a team of three London- based Gartmore fund managers headed by...

Editorial: Structured products fail to impress UK investors.(Editorial)
May 5, 2003... As Russell/Mellon Caps revealed that UK pooled balanced funds had registered yet another period of dismal returns, investors must have pondered anew their turbulent love affair with equities. Pension schemes which have seen their loyalty to...

News: In brief - GAM hedge fund opts for long/short strategy.(Brief Article)
May 5, 2003... GAM is to launch a specialist European hedge fund, GAM EuroSelect Hedge, in response to what it says are growing market opportunities. The fund will be domiciled in the British Virgin Islands and managed by John Bennett, head of GAM's...

News: In brief - FMCPages the first choice of Irish Life.(Brief Article)
May 5, 2003... Irish Life Investment Managers has picked Financial Model Company's FMCPages for client reporting services. Irish Life picked the product on the basis of ease of installation and ability to interface with an existing in-house investment...

News: In brief - Quarter shows increase within AAA-rated funds.(Brief Article)
May 5, 2003... The Institutional Money Market Funds Association (IMMFA) has reported that total assets under management in member's AAA-rated money market funds rose to $136.8bn in the first quarter of this year. Dollar-denominated funds suffered a slight...

News: In brief - Glaxo strikes balance with shares and prices.
May 5, 2003... The $131bn California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) Board of administration has "commended" GlaxoSmithKline for cutting the price of its combination AIDS treatment drug, Combivir. Sean Harrigan, CalPERS president, said: "We...

News: In brief - Winning hand for GMO with equity mandates.(Brief Article)
May 5, 2003... GMO has won UK equity mandates from Accenture and ChevronTexaco. The firm, which declined to give further details on the briefs, said these were two out of six wins in the asset class this year, totalling more than GBP160m. Paul Bostock,...

News: In brief - UK civil service puts trust in HB&W pensions.(Brief Article)
May 5, 2003... Hewitt Bacon & Woodrow has been appointed pension scheme actuary and consultant for the UK civil service. It already advised the Cabinet Office on additional voluntary contribution facilities. The appointment covers the service's defined...

News: In brief - Eurex says costs cut by bundling margin collateral.(Brief Article)
May 5, 2003... International derivatives market Eurex has announced that offsetting risks from positions in derivatives on equities and indices are to be netted in the calculation of margin payments, as of June 2 this year. It said that bundling the margin...

News: Aegon picks up e280m from PST.(Aegon Asset Management pension fund contract from Pensioen Stichting Transport)(Brief Article)
May 5, 2003... Pensioen Stichting Transport (PST) in the Netherlands has awarded approximately half its assets in a E280m balanced mandate to Aegon Asset Management. PST, the company pension fund of Deutsche Post World Net, split a balanced brief held by...

News: Prolonged equity dip boosts bond trading.(Brief Article)
May 5, 2003... Fixed income assets under management have increased by 50 per cent in the US and Asia, reaching $9200bn and $600bn, respectively. Greenwich Associates has reported an increase in institutional bond use over 2002, reflecting the poor...

News: Glasgow seeks fixed income and equity specialists.(Brief Article)
May 5, 2003... Glasgow City Council is putting approximately 40 per cent of its GBP5bn pension fund out for tender. The fund is tendering a fixed income portfolio of GBP250m and looking for equity managers for the remainder, as part of its move away from...

News: Standish Mellon to run $4bn of assets for Aviva.(Brief Article)
May 5, 2003... Standish Mellon Asset Management, a Boston-based subsidiary of Mellon Financial Corporation, has won a mandate to manage $2bn in investment grade corporate bonds for Aviva Life Insurance Company in the US. Standish Mellon will also provide...

Comment and Analysis: Paying more attention to in-house research.
May 5, 2003... Small asset managers, hampered by proportionally large research costs, need to make radical changes to their investment and research process in order to compete effectively. This is the finding of a report by McKinsey & Company. But some...

News: Citisoft meets demand for risk measurement.
May 5, 2003... Specialist consultancy Citi-soft has launched a risk and performance consulting service, in line with increased industry awareness of the importance of measuring portfolio risk. Cosmo Wisniewski, Citi-soft's director of consultancy...

News: Hard-pressed funds opt for risk budgeting.(Brief Article)
May 5, 2003... Pension funds are turning to risk budgeting as bear markets drive investment returns down. According to a recent paper, Retirement Financial Management, from Mercer Investment Consulting, progressive plan sponsors in the US, UK, Canada and...

News: Pennsylvania tends to alternatives.
May 5, 2003... The $20.3bn Pennsylvania State Employees' Retirement System has awarded up to $38m of its alternative investments allocation to Minneapolis-based ShoreView Capital Partners. The trustees have also approved the allocation of $1.2m to Austin...

News: Swedish plan ventures into emerging markets.(Brief Article)
May 5, 2003... The SKr120bn (e13bn) Second Swedish National Pension Fund (AP2) has awarded emerging market mandates totalling 2 per cent of the fund. The fund appointed Deutsche Bank, F&C Management, State Street Global Advisors, Genesis and Pictet to...

News: In brief - Merrill Lynch loses Middlesborough contract.(Brief Article)
May 5, 2003... Middlesborough Borough Council Teeside Pension Fund has dropped Merrill Lynch as a provider of equity research, sales and trading. Fred Green, head of investments at the GBP950m fund, said Merrill had informed him the fund would have to...

News: In brief - Henderson invited to re-bid for Bedfordshire bond brief.(Brief Article)
May 5, 2003... The UK's Bedfordshire County Council Pension Fund has put a bond mandate of up to GBP75m out to tender. The GBP580m fund is replacing a brief run by Hendersons with a more corporate bond-focused mandate. A spokesman for the fund said that...

News: Pooled balanced funds lose positive advances.
May 5, 2003... Pooled balanced funds in the UK continue to feel the strain of turbulent markets, two new reports suggest. The average balanced pooled manager returned -4.3 per cent for the three months to March 2003, according to the HBSC Actuaries and...

News: KPMG poll tips fund of funds growth.(Brief Article)
May 5, 2003... Fund of funds will be the products with strongest growth in Luxembourg over the next three years, according to KPMG. A survey by the firm predicted a challenging year for the fund administration industry in Luxembourg. Based on...

News: Invesco brings DC business back home.(Brief Article)
May 5, 2003... Invesco Pensions has brought the administration for its UK defined contribution (DC) business in-house, ending a two-year relationship with Scottish Life Administration Services. Invesco has 96 DC schemes as clients in the UK, amounting to...

News: Hewitt links up with Northern.(Brief Article)
May 5, 2003... Hewitt Associates, a global human resources outsourcing and consulting firm, has agreed to purchase virtually all of the assets of Northern Trust Retirement Consulting (NTRC), Northern Trust's retirement consulting and administration business....

How the deal was won: Hackney opts not to follow the herd.(Brief Article)
May 5, 2003... Allianz Dresdner attributes a GBP85.5m mandate from the London Borough of Hackney Pension Fund to a combination of UK and global equities expertise, stressed at interview. "To be successful in running UK equities you need to know about the...

News: Mellon transfers assets totalling oe30bn from Clydesdale's grasp.(Brief Article)
May 5, 2003... Clydesdale Bank has lost nearly GBP30bn of assets under administration as global titan Mellon Financial takes its UK sub-custody business in-house. Mellon set up its own UK sub-custody arm at the end of March, as one of a number of moves...

News: JPMorgan bags A$5bn Aussie brief.(Brief Article)
May 5, 2003... Global custodian JPMorgan has scooped a A$5bn mandate from the Local Government, Energy Industries and Chifley superannuation funds in Australia. The brief is to provide accounting and related services for the assets, replacing previous...

News: State Street given nod to service Aon umbrella fund.
May 5, 2003... Aon Asset Management has appointed State Street Corporation to provide fund administration and custody for its new umbrella fund. The manager of managers product was launched in March with GBP300m under management and has commitments of...

News: In brief - Hedge Fund Research unveils four fund of fund indices.(Brief Article)
May 5, 2003... Hedge Fund Research (HFR) has launched four hedge fund of fund sub-strategy indices in the wake of, it said, the growing popularity of fund of funds. This is tied in with the launch of a new fund of funds database and directory. The...

News: In brief - Russell/Mellon pushes AMI in US after European success.(Brief Article)
May 5, 2003... Russell/Mellon Analytical Services has expanded its asset manager information (AMI) system into the US on the back, it said, of success in Europe. A web-based tool, AMI collects and distributes manager information to consultants around the...

News Analysis: Risk Budgeting - Applying sound acumen to subjective decisions.
May 5, 2003... Risk budgeting, reportedly the next big thing in mature pension fund markets, must come as a welcome relief to trustees understandably bewildered by the rapid exchange of ideas that constitutes the bonds-equities debate. Pension funds in...

People News: Alliance's loss is First State's gain.(Louise Bradshaw hired by First State Investments, from Alliance Capital Management Australia)(Brief Article)
May 5, 2003... First State Investments has poached Louise Bradshaw from Alliance Capital Management Australia, in the new role of institutional sales director. Ms Bradshaw, who ran relationship management and client retention at Alliance, has been...

People News: Lee to succeed as Maryland director.(Brief Article)
May 5, 2003... Thomas Lee is to be the new executive director of the Maryland State Retirement System following the departure of Peter Vaughn on the grounds of ill-health. Mr Vaughn retired in December on account of a chronic back condition. Mr Lee moves...

People News: McErlean in US to spearhead exchange.(Michael McErlean to work for Eurex)(Brief Article)
May 5, 2003... Derivatives exchange Eurex has recruited a former Goldman Sachs manager as it builds up to the launch of a registered US exchange. Michael McErlean, previously global co-head of futures services at Goldman, is to join the firm's US...

People News: Tan helps FTSE get a toe-hold in Far East.( Diane Tan named FTSE Group sales manager )(Brief Article)
May 5, 2003... FTSE Group has underlined its expansion strategy in the Far East with the appointment of Diane Tan as sales manager for the region. Ms Tan, formerly a sales account manager at Money-line Telerate, will handle sales and marketing in Hong...

People News: Stark switches Stoxx for MTS Group.(new euro-zone government bonds index head)(Brief Article)
May 5, 2003... Scott Stark has left Stoxx to head up a new euro-zone government bonds index for the MTS Group. Mr Stark will develop the EuroMTS Index, the successor to the CNO Etrix Indices and, according to MTS Group, the first euro-zone government...

Portfolio: Asset Allocation - Europe - Isis bullish on telecommunications.
May 5, 2003... Isis Asset Management's corporate bond investment process combines a top-down and bottom-up approach with a corporate governance overlay applied for good measure. Andrew Tunks, head of bonds, said the credit team first concentrated on...

Portfolio: Asset Allocation - Asia-Pacific - Active managers with a Euro bent.
May 5, 2003... Often lost in the hue and cry of falling markets are the attractions of active investing as a source of good gains over time, essentially by avoiding the dud stocks and positioning for growth. In line with such a philosophy, the Queensland...

Portfolio: Asset Allocation - Americas - Morley's brief is corporate bonds.
May 5, 2003... The lion's share of Morley Fund Management's $1.7bn brief from Aviva Life Insurance Company is investment grade corporate bonds. The exception is $100m in convertibles, which is an existing mandate renewed by Aviva and handled by portfolio...

Portfolio: Market Analysis - View from Europe - Spectre of recession and deflation hang in the air.(Brief Article)
May 5, 2003... Europe's economic performance remains lacklustre. In 2002 Europe was the only major economic region to disappoint depressed consensus growth expectations at the start of the year. This poor performance reflected a combination of structural...

Portfolio: Market Analysis - View from the Americas - Quality of corporate earnings moves to centre stage.
May 5, 2003... For months, a possible war with Iraq was the most frequently cited undercurrent of investor discomfort. Now that large scale military action seems to be over and the geopolitical backdrop is stabilising, the stock market's fundamental drivers...

Portfolio: Market Analysis - View from Asia-Pacific - China addresses structural frailties of its economy.
May 5, 2003... China's new president and premier were officially elected at the 10th People Congress in March. China's fourth generation of leadership and its cabinet are committed to resolving five challenges going forward: the slow development of...

Mandate Research: Asset Allocation - Global Equities - Giving the US a wide berth.
May 5, 2003... A recent FT Mandate editorial identified pension funds' current investment dilemma: should trustees reduce their equity exposure or should they expect an equity rally? In the wake of the expansion and collapse of one of history's most...

Mandate Research: Asset Allocation - Global Equities - Battle against Sars virus could further boost Asian economies.
May 5, 2003... While there is no denying the attraction of Asian markets at present, which has been spurred on by the spectacular growth in China, investors would be ill-advised to rule out the opportunities in the US. It is still 'all eyes on Wall Street'....

Mandate Research: Asset Allocation - Collateralised debt obligations - Good for more than headlines.
May 5, 2003... A lot has been said about collateralised debt obligations (CDOs) in the press recently. These sensationalist headlines have turned those people who are most likely to benefit from the use of CDO technology against considering them. There...

Mandate Research: Emerging markets - Russia - Untapped potential.(Russian equities market)
May 5, 2003... Russian equities offer very interesting opportunities for international investors, with many Russian companies well on their way to becoming major corporations, with high growth and expanding margins. Economic indicators reflect this upside...

Mandate Research: Stock exchanges - Consolidation - Pooling global liquidity.
May 5, 2003... Exchanges have undergone an accelerated transformation over the past 10 years. One-time national monopolies have given way to exchanges run by companies which are often themselves listed members. Also, with new products and trading access...

Call for common standards for transition management.
May 5, 2003... Frank Russell Company has called for common performance measurement standards for the transition management industry. A report by Bob Collie, director for Russell's implementation services team, demands common standards for calculating and...

Investec takes over the steering of Highway.(Brief Article)
May 5, 2003... Highway Insurance, a UK-based motor insurer, has dropped Aberdeen Asset Management from a GBP114m fixed interest brief. Highway, which has a total investment portfolio of GBP290m, has replaced Aberdeen with Investec Asset Management. ...

Bank of Scotland revamps 1976 line-up.(Brief Article)
May 5, 2003... The GBP1.2bn Bank of Scotland 1976 Pension Scheme has overhauled its manager line-up, dropping Edinburgh Fund Managers (EFM) and Baring Asset Management, and appointing three new managers. The 60 per cent active share of the scheme was...

Conferences.
May 5, 2003... - The Actuaries Summit, London, UK, May 7-8 Two-day course run by IIR Finance Contact: +44(0)20 7915 5141 - The Best Practice GIPS Masterclass, London, May 12 and September 3 One-day course run by IIR Conferences Contact:...