| Bridgeway
Social Fund to Join with Calvert
By John Spence
August 22, 2000 |
|
Calvert Group and Bridgeway Capital Management today announced
a deal to request shareholder approval for a merger of the Bridgewater
Social Responsibility Portfolio into the Calvert Large Cap Growth
Fund. According to the terms of the agreement, Calvert will be
responsible for the fund operations, social screening for companies,
and oversight of management of the fund. Bridgeway will continue
as sub-advisor to the Calvert Large Cap Growth Fund and will choose
the securities to buy and sell.
"We are trying to tap into Calvert's outstanding social
research department, their superb distribution network, and their
much greater resources for shareholder advocacy," said John
Montgomery, President of Bridgeway Capital and Portfolio Manager
of the Bridgeway Social Responsibility Portfolio. "They [Calvert]
are tapping into our investment management expertise."
Montgomery said an aggressive timeframe for the launch of the
fund would be the end of October providing the merger is approved
by shareholders. The Calvert fund that Bridgeway will be joining
does not yet contain assets. Bridgeway's Socially Responsible
Porfolio contains over $7.5 million. One of the early players
in socially responsible funds, the Bridgeway fund was founded
in 1994.
Bridgeway is the latest fund manager to tap Calvert's experience
and reputation in the socially responsible mutual fund domain.
In June, Vanguard launched the Vanguard Calvert Social Index Fund,
which tracks the Calvert Social Index, an index that measures
the performance of large- and mid-capitalization companies that
meet certain social and environmental criteria. Vanguard's fund
contains over $25 million. It's date of inception was May 31,
2000.
When asked about going head to head with the Vanguard Calvert
Social Index Fund, Montgomery replied, "Based on historical
data...this will probably be a harder benchmark to beat than the
S&P 500 Index, our primary benchmark."
The Bridgeway Socially Responsible Portfolio, which has a five-star
Morningstar rating, is one of six funds managed by the Houston-based
Bridgeway. All companies with holdings in the fund are screened
for track records in areas such as environmental policies, minority
advancement, workplace issues, military contracts, and animal
testing. Companies involved in the tobacco or military industries
are automatically removed from the list of eligible companies.
The top ten holdings in the in the Bridgeway Social Responsibility
Portfolio are listed in the table below:
| Rank |
Company |
% of net assets |
| 1 |
Corning |
4.4% |
| 2 |
Advanced Micro Devices |
4.3% |
| 3 |
Corsair Communications |
4.2% |
| 4 |
Timberland |
3.9% |
| 5 |
Green Mountain Coffee |
3.6% |
| 6 |
Siebel Systems |
3.5% |
| 7 |
ADC Telecommunications |
3.5% |
| 8 |
Applied Materials |
3.3% |
| 9 |
Pacific Health Systems |
3.2% |
| 10 |
Bank of America |
3.1% |
*as of 6/30/2000
The average annual returns of the Bridgeway Social Responsibility
Portfolio are listed in the table below:
| Fund |
YTD |
1-Year |
5-Year |
Since inception (8/5/94) |
| Bridgeway Social Responsibility Portfolio |
2.59% |
37.64% |
28.45% |
27.20% |
| S&P 500 |
-0.42% |
7.24% |
23.80% |
24.00% |
*as of 6/30/2000
Montgomery will continue to pick the stocks in this active fund,
and doesn't anticipate conflicts with Calvert's social criteria,
which largely overlap Bridgeway's. Both companies place a particularly
strong emphasis on the environment, animal rights, and social
issues.
Bridgeway was founded in 1993 by Montgomery, a computer research
engineer at MIT who, after receiving an MBA from Harvard Business
School, applied his quantitative methods and computer modeling
skills to researching the mutual fund industry. Bridgeway relies
heavily on computer data research and has a policy in place whereby
no employee, including Montgomery, can make more than seven times
the total salary of the lowest paid employee. Montgomery also
manages Bridgeway's ultra-small and ultra-large index funds.