MPLT Chairman Alvaro A. Santos told Variety, “At the end of this month, we are going to cut a check to the government.”
In an interview yesterday, Santos said the combined MPLT general fund and park fund assets stood at $69 million of which $8 million is the park fund.
He, however, said the market remains volatile.
“Market is volatile that is why we are monitoring it very closely with our money managers especially the equities,” he said.
The trustees, he said, is constantly working with their consultant and money managers and are regularly checking reports.
“The stock market is so volatile. It just requires a lot of paying close attention to and how it behaves,” he said.
Despite the market’s volatility, he assured that MPLT has enough safety nets to tide it over, “to insulate it from any adverse impact or losses.”
Should the conditions worsen to the point when it affects the present allocation, Santos said MPLT will make the appropriate action, review it and make some appropriate changes.
He also told Variety that they have selected a replacement for Atalanta Sosnoff, its money manager that handles the large cap asset.
According to investopedia, large cap — an abbreviation for large market capitalization — is a term used by the investment community to refer to companies with a market capitalization value of more than $10 billion, where capitalization is calculated by multiplying the number of a company’s shares outstanding by its stock price per share.
Santos told Variety that after reviewing the performance of money managers, they found a consistent downslide in Atalanta’s performance. “We decided to replace it and we had several candidates.”
Atalanta Sosnoff handles 9.1 percent of MPLT’s total portfolio, Santos said yesterday.
As of August, MPLT’s assets under Atalanta Sosnoff management was around 8.76 percent while its Investment Policy Statement called for 10 percent in large cap.
Out of several candidates, MPLT finally chose Metropolitan West or MetWest.
In choosing MetWest, Santos said it was chosen on account of its good market performance.
He also said another consideration was the new money manager’s accessibility, having an office on Guam.
“Performance is paramount and they have to meet industry standards,” he said.
“We are transitioning now. We have already informed both parties that we are terminating with Atalanta and we are informing MetWest that we selected them,” he added.
Based on MPLT’s strategic allocation, 10 percent goes to domestic equity, large cap core; 5 percent emerging markets; 10 percent, convertible securities; 45 percent, domestic fixed income; 5 percent, high yield; 5 percent, local high yield; and 10 percent, international bonds.
