CalSTRS
CalSTRS committed $129 million to IHP Capital Partners and $128 million to ResCal, both residential housing joint ventures, confirmed spokesman Ricardo Duran.
The investments are the first in residential housing for the $141.3 billion California State Teachers' Retirement System, West Sacramento, Mr. Duran said. They're part of a shift by CalSTRS to a larger core strategy in the system's $14.3 billion real estate portfolio.
CalSTRS will own 97% of the assets in the IHP venture and 98% of the ResCal venture.
Mr. Duran said the move to a bigger core strategy, approved by the CalSTRS board in June, followed large real estate losses by CalPERS over the last several years.
The new ventures will focus on single-family housing and homebuilder finance, land acquisition and development projects, Mr. Duran said.
Green Century Capital
Green Century Capital Management hired Northern Trust Global Investments to subadvise the $50 million Green Century Equity fund, confirmed Erin Gray, manager of marketing and strategic analysis at Green Century.
Northern Trust replaces Mellon Capital Management as subadviser of the passive offering, which aims to track the MSCI KLD 400 Social index, comprising stocks of 400 companies selected using environmental and social criteria.
Ms. Gray said while Mellon Capital did a “great job” overseeing the fund for the past three years, Northern Trust's focus on the ESG sector, where it manages more than $14 billion in assets, made it the right manager to build the fund going forward.
Mellon spokesman Mike Dunn declined to comment.
Lincolnshire County Council Pension
Lincolnshire County Council Pension Fund, Lincoln, England, hired Morgan Stanley Investment Management to run a diversified alternatives portfolio totaling £180 million ($284 million), or 15% of the £1.2 billion fund.
Nick Rouse, assistant investment manager of the fund, said the hire was part of a broader portfolio restructuring that resulted in the reduction of equities to 60% from 65%, and bonds to 13.5% from 18.5%, of total assets. In addition, a private equity portfolio accounting for 5% of the total fund will be transferred to MSIM to be included in the alternatives multiasset strategy, Mr. Rouse said. No manager was terminated.
An RFP was issued in April.
JLT Actuaries and Consultants advised.
London Borough of Lambeth Pension
London Borough of Lambeth Pension Fund hired seven managers to handle a combined £405 million ($631 million) — more than half of the £750 million fund's assets.
Invesco Perpetual will manage about £90 million in real estate, joining UBS Global Asset Management and RREEF, which run real estate portfolios of about £5 million each, according to the fund's website.
Baillie Gifford and MFS Investment Management will each run £85 million in active global equity. They replace UBS, AllianceBernstein and Aberdeen Asset Management, which ran approximately £225 million, £120 million and £100 million, respectively, also in global equity. When the searches began, Harry Musisi, the borough's treasury manager, said the managers were able to rebid.
PAAMCO and BlueCrest Capital Management were hired to handle £50 million and £25 million, respectively, in hedge funds of funds. Principal Global Investors was hired to run £35 million in active currency, while Standard Life Investments was hired to run a similar amount in its Global Absolute Return Strategies fund.
Searches began in November 2009; Mercer assisted.
Mr. Musisi did not return requests for additional information by press time.
Los Angeles City Employees' Retirement System
Los Angeles City Employees' Retirement System hired Wilshire Associates as the $10 billion system's general investment consultant, Juan Garcia, system spokesman, wrote in an e-mail response to inquiries.
Wilshire replaces incumbent Pension Consulting Alliance, whose contract expires Dec. 31. PCA rebid.
System officials originally issued an RFP for a consultant in December 2009 but canceled it in April after they had conducted due diligence and reviewed the RFP responses. System officials reissued the RFP on June 2.
Separately, the board renewed for three years the contracts of active equity managers Daiwa SB Investments, which manages $201 million in a Pacific Basin portfolio, and Sit Investment Associates, $196 million in domestic small-cap growth. No RFP was issued.
Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board, Boston, approved a $150 million commitment to Centerbridge Capital Partners II, a $3.75 billion private equity and distressed debt fund.
Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board, Boston, saw its total assets rise to $46.85 billion, with investment returns of 9.49% for the first 10 months of 2010.
Michael Trotsky, executive director, told the board at its Dec. 7 meeting that the stock market's rally in September and October had accounted for the bulk of those gains.
MilitarySuper
MilitarySuper, Belconnen, Australia, hired Towers Watson as main investment consultant to the A$3.3 billion (US$3.17 billion) plan, according to Tony Hyams, fund chairman.
The hiring was reported by Investment Magazine, Sydney.
Strategic Capital Management, the plan's previous investment consultant, will continue to advise on specific areas. “We're not yet specifying what SCM will be doing,” Mr. Hyams said. “It's not necessarily specific investments, but rather specific areas. It's a continuing relationship which is in the process of being defined.”
MilitarySuper had a “broad and fairly exhaustive tender to look at the market” over about three months, he said, “and in the end, the board chose Towers Watson because they provided us with the best fit.”
Minnesota State Board of Investment
Minnesota State Board of Investment, St. Paul, hired State Street Global Advisors to manage target-date funds that the board's $3.7 billion 457 plan will add as investment options on July 1, said Howard J. Bicker Jr., executive director.
SSgA was selected at the board's Dec. 1 meeting.
Also, the board, which oversees $48.1 billion in retirement plan assets, terminated Lord Abbett, which managed $300 million in active domestic large-cap value equities, because of personnel changes, Mr. Bicker said. The money will be moved to cash for benefit payments.
The board approved commitments of $100 million each to five current private equity managers for new funds: GTCR Fund X; CS Strategic Partners V; Summit Partners Growth Equity VIII; Vestar Capital Partners VI and Merit Energy Partners H funds.
The National Trust
The National Trust, Swindon, England, hired Northern Trust as global custodian, said Paul Maguire, assistant director, treasury and fund management, at the £881 million ($1.4 billion) charitable trust.
Each of the trust's three money managers — J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Newton Investment Management and BlackRock — had their own custodians, but with the expected appointment of Longview Partners as a global equity manager, trust officials decided to move to a single custodian appointed by them, rather than add another custodian chosen by the new manager, Mr. Maguire said.
The previous custodians were J.P. Morgan for J.P. Morgan AM and BNY Mellon Asset Servicing for Newton and BlackRock.
Another reason for the move was that trust officials wanted to get aggregate reporting across the investment portfolio, Mr. Maguire said.
J.P. Morgan runs U.K. equity and international property mandates for the foundation, while Newton and BlackRock run absolute-return mandates. Mr. Maguire did not have exact information on mandate sizes, but said the portfolio generally is evenly split among the four managers.
Orange County Employees
Orange County Employees Retirement System, Santa Ana, Calif., hired agriculture managers Hancock Agricultural Investment Group to run $80 million and UBS Global Asset Management to handle $40 million, contingent on legal review of the contracts, Robert Kinsler, spokesman for the $8.3 billion system, wrote in an e-mailed response to inquiries.
The hirings are the first from a new 1.5% allocation to agriculture approved by the board in June. The fund conducted an invitation-only search.
System officials also committed $45 million to the 2011 annual pool fund managed by Abbott Partners and $20 million to Adams Street Partnership Fund Program 2011, each is a private equity fund of funds.
Santa Barbara County Employees'
Santa Barbara County Employees' Retirement System hired Rampart Investment Management for a $33 million passive total return options strategy, said Adam Bickelman, spokesman for Rampart, in e-mailed response to questions.
The board decided to begin the covered call program with 2% of the system's assets, with the potential to increase it to 4% of SBCERS' assets in 2011 after the program is reviewed.
The option strategy uses the Chicago Board Options Exchange investment approach which monetizes the volatility of equity assets creating a new income stream from selling index call options.
Vincent B. Brown, CEO of the $2 billion system could not be reached by press time for details.
