U.S. Renews Pacific Investment Contract

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., a federal agency created by Congress to ensure payment of pension benefits, said it renewed a contract with Newport Beach-based Pacific Investment Management Co.

The decision means Pacific Investment, a unit of Pimco Advisors Holdings LP, will hold on to a fixed-income portfolio of about $11 billion, which it has managed since 1991. The new one-year contract to invest in U.S. Treasury securities can be renewed annually for as many as seven years.

Pacific Investment beat out six firms competing for the bond portfolio, a PBGC spokesman said. The company also manages a $225-million, large-company stock portfolio for PBGC.

The 24-year-old PBGC oversees more than $15.6 billion in assets and employs 11 managers, the agency said. The agency covers about 42 million American workers and retirees participating in about 45,000 private-sector pension plans.