Seattle City Employees’ Retirement System approved a $10 million investment in TCW Energy Fund XIV and a $5 million investment in Capital Point Partners Mezzanine Fund, according to recently released minutes of the $2.1 billion system’s Oct. 4 board meeting; an RFP for mezzanine debt managers was issued in August.
Separately, the board put EARNEST Partners on watch. According to the minutes, the investment committee met with representatives from the firm about its “lagging investment performance,” although the firm’s “most recent investment performance has shown some improvement.” According to the system’s 2006 annual report, EARNEST managed $31.8 million in domestic equities for the fund as of Dec. 31.
Trey Greer, partner at EARNEST, confirmed the firm was placed on watch by the system, probably because of the portfolio’s performance in 2006 and the beginning of 2007. Over the past eight months, however, the portfolio has improved and has been up 6.6%, nearly 500 percentage points ahead of its benchmark, he said.
