Public School Teachers’ Pension & Retirement Fund of Chicago at its board meeting this week hired The Townsend Group as the fund’s first real estate investment consultant.
Townsend is expected to review the $10 billion fund’s $600 million real estate portfolio, which includes REITs, core real estate and opportunistic real estate funds.
Pension Consulting Alliance was the other finalist.
The board also agreed to raise the fund’s international equity target allocation to 12.5% from 10% of assets, subject to approval of the allocation of the assets at the board’s May 23 meeting.
Consultant William M. Mercer also recommended a number of other changes — which the fund will review in depth at the May meeting — including terminating Smith Graham, which manages $56 million in an opportunistic bond portfolio for the system; Banc of America Capital Management, $99 million in opportunistic bonds; and Brinson, $235 million in large-cap value equities.
It also recommended placing bond manager Miller Anderson & Sherrerd, small-cap equity manager J.&W. Seligman and large-cap growth equity manger Woodford Capital on watch for six to nine months.
