HIRINGS
Arkansas Public Employees
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - The $2.3 billion Arkansas Public Employees' Retirement System hired four international equity managers to invest about $159 million.
Bankers Trust-Australia will run a $12 million Pacific Rim portfolio; Nomura Capital Management, a $46 million Japan-only portfolio; UBS International, a $46 million Europe-only portfolio; and American Express Institutional Services, a $55 million core international portfolio.
Armco Inc.
PITTSBURGH - The $1.9 billion Armco Inc. pension fund hired two domestic equity managers, said Dennis F. Furey, director-investment management.
Sasco Capital was assigned $50 million; DePrince Race & Zollo received $40 million. Assets came from other managers. He declined to give details.
Chicago Policemen
CHICAGO - The $2.2 billion Chicago Policemen's Annuity & Benefit Fund hired Northern Trust as its custodian, effective Oct. 1.
Bank of America, which sold its custody operations to Bank of New York, was the previous custodian.
CHICAGO - Caisse Nationale de Credit Agricole hired Scudder Group Retirement Services to provide a fully bundled service to its $7.5 million 401(k) plan. Scudder will provide six investment options. In addition, the plan will offer one Fidelity fund, the Fidelity Advisors Growth Opportunities Fund.
Formerly, the fund used an unbundled approach, with Harris Bank as trustee and investment manager, offering three investment options. A. Foster Higgins was record keeper.
Janet Chisholm, vice president-human resources, said the plan is undergoing a wholesale change. For instance, it will switch to daily from quarterly valuation; adopt a voice-response system; loosen its loan provisions so participants can obtain loans for any reason; and step up its employee communication and education efforts.
Dallas Police & Fire
DALLAS - The $1 billion Dallas Police & Fire Pension Fund retained Wilshire Associates as investment consultant and Institutional Property Consultants as real estate consultant, said Richard Tettamant, administrator. Each firm received a five-year contract, said Mr. Tettamant.
City and County of Denver
DENVER - The more than $100 million City and County of Denver Deferred Compensation Plan hired ICMA Retirement to give employees a broader range of investment options, said Mary Cay, director of marketing.
ICMA offers 11 investment options; they will be added Jan. 1. Cooney Benefit Associates, which also provides investment services, will be retained.
First Union Corp.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - First Union Corp. chose the Tomorrow Retirement Funds from Weiss, Peck & Greer as the first lifecycle investment option in the 401(k) program offered by First Union Daily Retirement Services, its defined contribution group. Some 65 mutual funds from nine fund families are part of the offering.
GLENVIEW, Ill. - The $450 million defined benefit plan of Illinois Tool Works Inc. hired two managers and dropped two others, said Robert T. Callahan, director-compensation and benefits.
Oak Associates will run $40 million in large-capitalization growth equities, and Neumeier Investment Counsel will run $30 million in small-cap value equities.
Most of the assets for the new managers will come from dropping Amerindo Investment Advisors, which ran $16 million in small-cap growth, and Phoenix Investment Counsel, which ran $44 million in large-cap growth equities. The rest could come from a contribution the company might make to the pension plan or from reducing assets of other large-cap equity managers.
SEI assisted in the searches.
New York State Deferred
ALBANY, N.Y. - The $2 billion New York State Deferred Compensation Board hired New York Life Insurance to manage up to $95 million in guaranteed investment contracts, said Kathryn Branch, an associate with Shearman Sterling, the plan's legal adviser.
John Hancock Funds previously managed about $35 million of the assets, but its contract expired in July. The balance of the money will come from cash flow.
Orlando Employees
ORLANDO, Fla. - The $100 million Orlando General Employee Pension Fund hired Scottish Equitable Investment Management to run $8 million in international growth equities, said Bruce Harter, treasurer.
It will invest mostly in Morgan Stanley Capital International Europe Australasia Far East Index countries, "but it's not precluded from being in emerging markets, although that's not likely to be more than 10%," Mr. Harter said. Assets will come from cash.
Kalson Associates assisted.
Other finalists were Sit/Kim International and Morgan Grenfell Asset Management.
WASHINGTON - The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. hired Crabbe Huson Group to manage $50 million in value equities for the agency's $3.1 billion equity portfolio. The hiring was part of a search for emerging managers with $500 million to $750 million under management.
The PBGC is launching another search for one or more managers with less than $1 billion in assets and $50 million to $500 million in the equity product marketed to PBGC. The firm or firms chosen will receive $10 million to $100 million depending on size.
BRENTWOOD, Tenn. - The Reserve Funds mutual fund family selected Cambridge Equity Advisors to run its newly launched Mid-Cap Growth Fund.
The new fund will invest in small- and midcap stocks and a few fast-growing large-cap stocks.
Sierra Technologies
CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. - The $25 million pension fund of Sierra Technologies Inc. hired Newport Capital Advisers as consultant, said James Wallace, director-human resources. Newport replaces Wellesley Group. Mr. Wallace said the fund wanted to stay with Andrew Parrillo, who left Wellesley to start Newport.
Sutherland Asbill & Brennan
WASHINGTON - The law firm of Sutherland Asbill & Brennan hired First Union National Bank of Georgia to manage $5 million in the Evergreen Foundation Fund, a balanced mutual fund, said Charles King, retirement plans coordinator.
The assets are part of Sutherland Asbill's $60 million profit-sharing fund.
Assets came from a reallocation of existing managers; no managers were terminated. SOL Capital Management assisted.
Texas Permanent School Fund
AUSTIN, Texas - The $12.2 billion Texas Permanent School Fund selected Citibank as its custodian, replacing Bank of America.
Other finalists were Bank of New York, which earlier agreed to buy Bank of America custody operations, and Northern Trust.
Voyageur Funds
MINNEAPOLIS - Voyageur Funds hired Segall, Bryant & Hamill as subadviser to its new growth and income fund.
Wayne County Employees
DETROIT - The Wayne County (Mich.) Employees' Retirement System added two investment portfolio choices, including its first international option, to its $90 million 401(a) plan, said Joseph A. Magda, executive secretary.
Massachusetts Financial Services will run a domestic emerging growth stock fund. Capital Research & Management's American Funds Group will run a European Pacific growth fund.
The additions bring the plan's total investment options to six.
The system did the searches itself.
SALEM, Ore. - The $118 million Willamette University endowment hired Rainier Investment Management for a $28 million balanced portfolio, said Brian W. Hardin, vice president-financial affairs.
Assets will come from dropping TCW Group, which had run the money in a balanced portfolio.
R.V. Kuhns & Associates assisted in the search.
NEW YORK - The $198 million 401(k) savings plan of Young & Rubicam Inc. added the Merrill Lynch Retirement Preservation Trust as an investment option, replacing an existing manager.
The change is subject to contract negotiations.
A fund official confirmed the hiring but did not provide information about which manager was terminated.