Sacramento County (Calif.) Employees' Retirement System terminated Bank of New York Asset Management as manager of $65 million active domestic small-cap growth equity portfolio, said Jeffrey States, CIO. BONY had been on the fund's watchlist for performance, but the termination was triggered by the resignation of John Lui, the senior portfolio manager who ran the portfolio, Mr. States said.
The $5.1 billion pension fund parked the money in a Russell 2000 Growth index fund managed by State Street Global Advisors while it pursues a targeted list of active domestic small-cap growth stock managers with consultant Mercer Investment Consulting.
Kevin Heine, a spokesman for BONY, said that Mr. Lui's role as head of the small-cap growth team is being assumed by Arthur Weise, vice president, who joined the firm a year ago. In addition, the firm is seeking to add at least two senior investment professionals to its small-cap equity team, Mr. Heine said. Mr. Lui is leaving BONY to join a small commercial bank to start up a private-banking arm.
Separately, the Sacramento fund plans to hire three real estate value-added or opportunistic managers over the next two quarters to run a total of about $75 million, Mr. States said. The move is part of a plan to shift assets from core real estate to more aggressive styles. The fund then plans to hire an additional three value-added or opportunistic managers to run an equivalent amount of assets, he said.
