Public School Teachers' Pension & Retirement Fund of Chicago is expected to discuss at its April board meeting adding a midcap mandate to its asset allocation, as well as restructuring its fixed-income portfolio.
The midcap mandate could be met with existing managers, Anita Andren, consultant with Mercer, said at today's board meeting. On the fixed-income side, trustees will review the amounts allocated to core passive, core active and augmented fixed income, which includes high-yield and international bonds. The fund's bond portfolio makes up 33.3% of the $8.5 billion fund.
Separately, the fund's lobbyists are looking for a legislator to sponsor a bill that would require the state to boost the percentage of its annual contribution allocated to the Chicago teachers fund. Now, the state allocates 18% to the fund; the remaining 82% goes to the Teachers' Retirement System of the State of Illinois. Officials of the Chicago teachers fund seek to raise the fund's portion to 20%.
Hong Kong's Legislative Council is expected to approve a package of laws and regulations to support the creation of the mandatory provident fund for Hong Kong.
Skeletal MPF enabling legislation was passed about 21/2 years ago. The followup rules, which are likely to come to a vote on Feb. 25, probably will not include a startup date for the MPF. Once the legislation is passed, the administrative office is likely to set a target date for the start of contributions to the MPF. A. Grahame Stott, regional director Asia-Pacific at Watson Wyatt Hong Kong Ltd., said he expects the target date to be Jan. 1, 2000.
College and university endowments had an average rate of return of 20.4% in 1997, an increase from 1996's return of 17.2%, according to the National Association of College and University Business Officers.
The return rates ranged from a low of 6.8% to a high of 46.9%, the highest rate of return in the survey's history.
Of the 640 institutions surveyed, 77%, with assets totalling more than $150 billion, responded.
Hedge fund manager returns were -0.4% on average in January, with only 35% of managers in the index outperforming the S&P 500 index, according to the Hennessee Hedge Fund index.
Managers focusing on Latin America, financial equities and emerging markets were the worst performing, with respective average monthly returns of -7.7%, -4.9% and -4.8%. Top-performing hedge fund groups focused on Europe, distressed securities and leveraged bonds, with respective January returns of 6.4%, 2.2%, and 1.4%.
Four pension plan sponsor and endowment executives have joined an advisory board to assist BARRA with future releases of its risk management software.
Included on the board are: Desmond Mac Intyre, director risk management, General Motors Investment Management Corp., New York; Susan Manske, director of risk management, Ameritech, Chicago; Jay Vivian, director of global funds management, IBM Corp., Stamford, Conn.; and William P. Miller, senior vice president and independent risk oversight officer, The Common Fund, according to a BARRA statement.
