Seattle City Employees' Retirement System issued an RFI on mezzanine and mezzanine-type investments, said Mel Robertson, assistant executive director. At its meeting Thursday, the board approved a recommendation to make mezzanine debt a separate asset class, comprising 5% of total assets. The $1.74 billion system will begin to fund several existing commitments soon, Mr. Robertson said, and is looking to add as many as three more mezzanine funds to reach the 5% goal. More information on the RFI can be obtained on the system's website at www.cityofseattle.net/retirement/rfp.htm.
In addition, the board increased the system's target real estate allocation to 12% from 10%.
The mezzanine and real estate asset allocation shifts were made possible by decreasing the fixed-income allocation to 14% from 21%, Mr. Robertson said. The system will reduce assets from two domestic fixed-income managers: Western Asset Management and Reams Asset Management, which run $230 million and $50 million, respectively. He declined to specify the amount of the reductions.
