Castle Harlan Partners III, a private equity limited partnership, committed $60 million to Matrix Capital Management, a start-up holding company that will make equity investments in money management firms, a spokesman said. Matrix's strategy is to accumulate majority positions in a diversified group of money management firms, a Castle Harlan spokesman said.
VIA Rail Canada, Montreal, is getting closer to finishing an expansion of its managed futures allocation, and has begun interviews with potential money managers, said Chris Caswell, director-corporate financial services.
The added commitment will be for C$16 million, and will complement its existing C$6 million allocation to a managed futures-linked structured note, Mr. Caswell said.
Officials for the C$1.2 billion (U.S. $870 million) fund have interviewed six firms, and will interview more in coming weeks, he said.
VIA Rail executives are determining what type of structure and product to use, he said. A decision is expected by the end of October.
Staff of the $80 billion California State Teachers' Retirement System, Sacramento, will ask trustees next week to give one-year contract extensions to six real estate advisers: AMB, ERE Yarmouth, O'Connor, Westmark, SSR Realty Advisors and MIG Realty. The fund's former real estate consultant, Institutional Property Consultants, resigned in April and the staff doesn't want to develop a new real estate strategy or conduct manager searches without a consultant.
With trustee approval, the staff intends to issue an RFP in September for a consultant specializing in real estate or a general consultant with real estate expertise. Interviews are expected in early December, and a choice could come in January 1998.
The fund has $1.9 billion in real estate assets.
Clarification: An item in the Sept. 2 P&I Daily misidentified the Contra Costa County Employees' Retirement Association, which is delaying an impending search for an EAFE manager. Correct reporting of the fund's actions was in the Sept. 3 P&I Daily.
