Mass. pension fund fires Legg, 4 others

Massachusetts' $50.6 billion pension fund today fired Legg Mason Capital Management, a Legg Mason Inc unit run by fund manager Bill Miller, and four other fund firms from managing a $1.8 billion U.S. stocks portfolio due to poor performance.

The pension fund, at a board meeting, approved transferring about $1.4 billion of the $1.8 billion portfolio to asset manager State Street Global Advisors, a unit of State Street Corp.

Separately, it also approved the transfer of a $300 million inflation-linked bonds mandate to BlackRock Inc.

The four other fund firms whose mandates to manage U.S. stocks were terminated by the pension fund are Ariel Investments, NWQ, Mazama Capital Management and Gardner Lewis. (Reuters)