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GM eyes pension business
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September 13, 1999: 2:07 p.m. ET
Largest retirement fund may open itself to other institutional investors
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - General Motors, which operates the largest private pension fund with $110 billion in assets, has tentative plans to open its doors to other investors.
General Motors Investment Management Corp., GM's investment unit, is looking to expand its pension asset management business to other institutional shareholders, the company said Monday.
GM hasn't gotten regulatory approval for the expansion, but its target date for expansion would be the fourth quarter, said spokeswoman Catherine Dunsby.
The new assets, which would be combined with GM's fund, would be from individual corporate pension plans or other pools of institutional pension money, she said.
GM may be getting into the competitive pension asset business because it has a well-known brand name, a team of in-house managers, and has likely outperformed the market, said Bob Powell, an analyst at Dalbar Inc., a Boston fund research company.
GM doesn't release performance figures for the pension fund.
"I don't think GM would be doing this if they didn't outperform the market -- one would suspect they have something to brag about," Powell said. "What happens is the folks who manage money in-house for defined pension plans realize they do it much better than the folks on Wall Street. They realize there's no reason why they can't offer it to other companies."
There is an estimated $8 trillion to $10 trillion in assets in traditional pension plans, Powell said. With the arrival of 401(k) plans, the field has become more and more competitive. 
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