Compliance April 12, 2007

PBGC Takes Anchor Hocking's 13% Funded Pension

April 12, 2007 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Fearing that the pension plan covering about 1,300 Anchor Hocking CG Operating Company workers and retirees may be abandoned, the nation's private-sector pension insurer is stepping in.
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The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) announced Thursday in a news release that it is assuming responsibility for the Anchor Hocking Pension Plan for Union Employees, a plan the PBGC estimated was 13% funded with $1.3 million in assets to cover $10.1 million in benefit liabilities. 

Anchor Hocking produces consumer glassware in Lancaster, Ohio, and Monaca, Pennsylvania. Anchor is a unit of Global Home Products LLC of Westerville, Ohio.   

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According to the agency’s news release, the PBGC is taking the action because the company has missed $5.7 million in required contributions and the plan will be abandoned as a result of the sale of substantially all of Anchor Hocking’s assets, as contemplated in its bankruptcy proceeding. 

According to the agency, Global Home Products LLC and Anchor Hocking filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on April 10, 2006.  The sale of substantially all of Anchor Hocking’s assets to a unit of Monomoy Capital Partners LP was approved by the bankruptcy court on March 26, 2007.

The PBGC said that Anchor Hocking and Global Home Products will be divested of substantially all operating assets, leaving the pension plan without a viable sponsor.

The PBGC said in the news release that it expects to be liable for about $4 million of the $8.8 million shortfall. The agency will take over the assets and use PBGC insurance funds to pay guaranteed benefits earned under the plan, which terminated on Thursday. 


 

Products April 11, 2007

JPMorgan Puts Out Two Analytics Offerings

April 11, 2007 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - JPMorgan Worldwide Securities Services has released an investment manager scoring tool and a new system to explore different risk levels resulting from asset allocation or manager changes, according to the company.
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A JPMorgan news release said the two offerings are designed to help asset managers and pension and endowment fund executives achieve greater risk-adjusted returns.


According to the announcement, the two offerings include:

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  • Consistency Analysis, an investment manager scoring product for all asset classes. Managers are ranked based upon consistency of risk-adjusted performance.
  • Marginal Risk Analysis, a product that enables investors to explore different levels of risk and return. Clients will be able to use it to make incremental improvements to their portfolios in the attempt to increase returns and decrease risk.  

“Institutional investors are always looking for new ways to generate additional returns,” said Craig Heatter, head of JPMorgan’s Investment Analytics & Consulting (IAC), in the news release. “These new tools will help them optimize their investments by building in more consistency and testing new levels of risk. JPMorgan’s forward-looking analytical tools should assist clients in maximizing their alpha-producing strategies, as well as understand historical and future risk and return opportunities.”

JPMorgan IAC provides services globally to more than 200 clients with 6,500 portfolios and $1.5 trillion in assets. For more information go to  www.jpmorgan.com/visit/IAC .

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