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Fresno Funds Consider New Allocations

August 4, 2008 - The joint board of the City of Fresno Retirement Systems (CFRS)-which consists of officials overseeing the $1.07 billion Employees' Retirement System and the $1.19 billion Fire & Police Retirement System-recently considered recommendations that would drastically alter the asset allocation and manager roster for the plans. According to the agenda for its meeting last week, CFRS' investment committee brought recommendations before the board that would reduce the plan's domestic equities allocation by 10%, dropping it down to 30% of the plan's assets, while increasing CFRS' international equities allocation by 8% and its emerging markets allocation by 2%, bringing them up to 25% and 5%, respectively.

William Blair in At Sacramento County

July 28, 2008 - The Sacramento County Employees' Retirement System (SCERS) recently hired William Blair & Company for a $60 million international small-cap equity investment. Jeff States, CIO with the $6.3 billion plan, said that SCERS currently has another small-cap international equity portfolio of about the same size with AXA Rosenberg, but that the board decided to double its exposure to the asset class and hire a new manager (See IMW, 5/19/08).

Santa Barbara County Meets With Finalists

July 28, 2008 - Last week the Santa Barbara County Employees' Retirement System (SBCERS) met with Lord Abbett, Mondrian Investment Partners, PanAgora Asset Management and State Street Global Advisors to discuss a mandate for developed markets equity Further details regarding the meeting could not be ascertained, as calls to Oscar Peters, administrator of the $1.8 billion plan, were not returned by press time.

OCERS Goes Global with New Allocation

July 28, 2008 - Investments in global equity will now be included in the Orange County Employees Retirement System' (OCERS) portfolio, Robert Kinsler, spokesman for the $8 billion California plan, told IMW. 'The board of retirement did approve an investment committee recommendation to create a separate allocation to global equity, with the funding for the mandate coming primarily from passive domestic equity,' Kinsler explained.

Texas Plan to Launch Duo Searches

July 28, 2008 - The $25 billion Texas Permanent School Fund (TPSF) is currently prepping two RFPs, said spokeswoman Debbie Ratcliffe. Due to the contract expiration of the incumbent BlackRock, the plan will launch a search for an international enhanced equity manager she said. The firm was originally hired in February 2004 under the name Merrill Lynch Investment Managers.

Bayou Cop Fund Interviews Finalists

June 30, 2008 - The board of the Louisiana Municipal Police Employees' Retirement System (LAMPERS) interviewed finalists in its searches for international small-cap equity, international emerging markets, and domestic large-cap value equity managers, according to the agenda from its June 18-19 meeting. American Century Investment Management, Batterymarch Financial Management, Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA) and Mondrian Investment Partners were considered for the international small-cap search.

Knoxville Creates New Allocations

June 23, 2008 - As first reported on imweekly.com (6/18/08), the $540 million City of Knoxville Pension Board will meet with consultant Dan Holmes of Summit Strategies next month to discuss ways to implement recently approved allocations, said Mike Cherry, executive director at the fund. Following the results of an asset/liability study, the plan decided to carve out allocations of 11% to portable alpha, 5.5% each to emerging markets equity and international small-cap equity and 5% each to private energy and private equity, Cherry said. Within fixed-income, the fund will allocate 10% to absolute return strategies and 5% to core-plus bonds.

Weymouth R.S. Issues RFP Trifecta

June 16, 2008 - The Weymouth Retirement System is searching for three managers to oversee equity portfolios, said plan administrator Marsha Silva. Weymouth issued RFPs for a large-cap growth manager to oversee approximately $12 million, an international core manager to oversee roughly $10 million and a smid-cap core manager to oversee approximately $6 million.

Do-Over for Taunton's Int'l Equity Search

June 16, 2008 - It's the second time around for the Taunton Retirement System as the plan has reissued an RFP for an international core equity mandate with emerging markets exposure, confirmed Paul Slivinski, executive director with the $190 million plan. The plan first launched the $13 million search in March (See IMW, 3/17/08).

Swampscott Seeks INVESCO Replacement

June 16, 2008 - In a move that could remove INVESCO from its roster, the Swampscott Retirement System is searching for an international core equity manager to oversee roughly $5.5 million, confirmed Richard DiPesa, the executive director with the $31.2 million plan. DiPesa said that the board has not been pleased with the services of INVESCO and that it is looking for a firm to take over the manager's account.

Tennessee Plan Seeks Emerging Markets

June 16, 2008 - The $35 million City of Franklin Employees' Pension Fund is looking to hire an emerging markets equity manager to oversee a $1.5 million mandate. According to the RFP issued by the Tennessee plan, it will consider both active and passive products in the search.

Ala. PACT Seeks Int'l Equity Managers

June 16, 2008 - The $702 million Alabama Prepaid College Tuition (PACT) Trust Fund is searching for international core or growth equity managers. According to the RFP, which was issued by the Office of the Alabama State Treasurer, the PACT fund is interested in hiring multiple firms for an expected five-year term. The managers will have the option of using emerging markets and the portfolios will be benchmarked against the MSCI EAFE index. The RFP states that the PACT fund currently has a 21% allocationor approximately $146 millionin international equity.

Alaska Perm. Fund Revamps Allocations

June 9, 2008 - The target allocations for private equity, absolute return, infrastructure and emerging markets were recently increased at the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation (APFC). A statement issued by the APFC notes that the private equity and absolute return targets were beefed up by 2%, while the targets for infrastructure and emerging market equity received increases of 1% each. As a result, the plan's allotments for domestic large-cap equity, non-U.S. developed markets equity and domestic fixed-income were decreased to balance out the increases.

Illinois TRS to Add to Manager Program

June 2, 2008 - The Teachers' Retirement System of the State of Illinois(TRS) will be expanding its $500 million emerging manager program, said Eva Goltermann, spokeswoman for the $38.7 billion plan. The program, which had earlier encompassed only the public market asset classes, will now also include investments in private equity, real estate and absolute return. Goltermann noted that up to 10% of the program could go into private equity investments.

Merced Picks EARNEST for Alpha Mandate

May 26, 2008 - The Merced County Employees' Retirement Association (MCERA) was expected to hire EARNEST Partners for an international equity alpha mandate, according to the agenda from its meeting last Thursday. At its April meeting, the $580 million plan interviewed EARNEST Partners, Manning & Napier Advisors, Marathon Asset Management and Thornburg Investment Management as potential managers for the account (See IMW, 4/28/08).