CalPERS placed six active international equity managers, running a combined $3.4 billion, on watch, according to a summary of the investment committee's March 15 closed session released today. Five were put on watch for underperformance: Pacific Basin manager BlackRock, which handles $250 million, and developed-markets managers Artisan Partners, which runs $662 million; Robeco, $655 million; Baillie Gifford, $607 million; and Oechsle, $579 million. Genesis, which runs $689 million in emerging markets equities, was placed on watch because of organizational changes.
Spokesmen for Artisan, Robeco and BlackRock declined to comment; officials from the other firms could not be reached by press time for comment.
Separately, staff of the $167 billion California Public Employees' Retirement System, Sacramento, recommended doubling the fund's allocation to opportunistic real estate to $1 billion as an interim measure. Staff plans to present a new policy in June for an opportunistic program that would allocate up to $1.6 billion to the subasset class. CalPERS has already committed $310 million to four opportunistic funds from its original $500 million allocation, with another $135 million in commitments in the pipeline.
