State Universities Retirement System of Illinois, Champaign, terminated Brinson Partners as manager of $325 million in active international value equities because of poor performance and organizational changes, said John R. Krimmel, acting chief investment officer for the $11.8 billion pension fund.
Trustees voted to accept a staff recommendation for termination. Consultant Ennis Knupp recommended removing half of Brinson’s assets and then extensively reviewing the manager again in November. Both the staff and consultant’s recommendations were made before Gary P. Brinson announced his resignation from the firm in early March. Brinson officials didn’t return calls for comment.
The system will use part of the terminated Brinson portfolio to fund the hiring of three active international equity managers: ValueQuest/TA for $25 million, value; and Oechsle International and Dresdner RCM, each for $50 million, growth. It placed the remaining assets in an existing Barclays Global Investors fixed-income index portfolio fund, raising it from $800 million. Ennis Knupp assisted in the search.
