Sioux Falls (S.D.) Employees' Retirement System hired Sawgrass Asset Management to run about $20 million in active domestic large-cap growth equities, said Howard Pohl, principal with consultant Becker Burke & Associates. Officials for the $194 million plan terminated Northern Trust, which ran the assets in a growth-tilt index equity fund, because they decided to switch to active management. Becker Burke compiled a list of candidates in the second half of 2004, when the city's $76 million Firefighters' Pension Fund hired Sawgrass to run about $8 million in large-cap growth equities.
Separately, the employee and firefighters plans will invest $5 million and $2 million, respectively, in a commingled real estate fund managed by Prudential. Both plans are reducing their REIT investments to fund the real estate allocations, although no REIT managers will be terminated, Mr. Pohl said.
Tom Huber, accounting manager for the city of Sioux Falls, referred questions to Mr. Pohl.
