At deadline: Okla. fund drops Turner and more

Oklahoma Public Employees Retirement System terminated Turner Investment Partners, which ran $157 million in active domestic large-cap growth equities for the fund, for performance reasons, confirmed Tom Spencer, executive director of the $6.6 billion system.

Mr. Spencer wrote in an e-mail that the board will move the assets to a Russell 1000 Growth index fund managed by BlackRock, which is OPERS' current index manager. OPERS also will use BlackRock for transition services, he said.

A Turner Investments spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.

The State of Wisconsin Investment Board allocated $100 million to Capula GRV Fund, its first direct investment in a hedge fund, according to Vicki Hearing, public information officer.

Funding for the investment by the board, which oversees $83.3 billion, will come from cash.

SWIB is negotiating with other candidates and is continuing its search for other hedge fund managers in its plan to allocate 2%, or $1.4 billion, of its $73.5 billion core fund to hedge funds. It contemplates hiring 15 to 20 managers. Consultant Cliffwater is assisting.

CalPERS confirmed the resignations of three senior portfolio managers last week.

Joncarlo Mark and Michael Dutton, senior portfolio managers in the alternatives investment management program, and James G. Lasher, a senior portfolio manager for real estate, all resigned, confirmed Clark McKinley a spokesman for the $226.5 billion fund.

Reasons for their departures could not be learned; none of the men could be reached for comment.

However, in a statement Mr. Mark said: “I have decided to move on to the next stage of my life and career. ... I leave CalPERS with great satisfaction that our hard-working team and I have been able to construct a top-notch, global private equity portfolio that is positioned to generate meaningful returns for years to come.”

And sources who asked not to be identified said Mr. Lasher was upset at the increasing role that consultants are playing in setting the new real estate direction for the retirement system and felt left out of the equation.

Mr. McKinley said the duties of Messrs. Mark and Dutton will be taken up by other staff in the alternatives investment portfolio. It was not known if Mr. Lasher would be replaced, Mr. McKinley said, but the residential portfolio for which he was responsible is to be de-emphasized as CalPERS winds down non-core investments under its new real estate strategic plan.

A bill to ban Kentucky's public retirement systems from using placement agents is on a fast track to a full vote in the state House of Representatives, according to the bill's sponsor, state Rep. Mike Cherry.

The proposal was approved unanimously Feb. 18 by the House State Government Committee and now heads to the full House.

Mr. Cherry, a Democrat, said in a telephone interview that the bill is a response to a state audit released in July, identifying roughly $15 million paid to placement agents by the Kentucky Retirement Systems between 2004 and 2009.

The bill would apply to the $13.9 billion Kentucky Retirement Systems and the $13.3 billion Kentucky Teachers' Retirement System.

The last day of the regular legislative session is March 22.

Henry “Hank” Morris, a key figure in the pay-to-play scandal involving the $132.8 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund was sentenced Feb. 17 to up to four years in prison, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman said.

The sentence, 1 1/3 to four years, is the maximum allowable by law, according to a news release from Mr. Schneiderman.

Mr. Morris pleaded guilty in November to a single felony count of securities fraud for his role in the scandal that also snared his boss, former State Comptroller Alan Hevesi. Mr. Morris was chief political adviser to Mr. Hevesi. The comptroller is the sole trustee of the New York State Common Retirement Fund.

According to the plea agreement, Mr. Morris forfeited $19 million and was permanently banned from the securities industry in the state, the news release said.

Iowa Public Employees' Retirement System rejected hiring Holland Park Risk Management as the $21.1 billion fund's first risk management consulting firm but will review the issue further, according to Judy Akre, IPERS director of communications.

IPERS issued an RFP in October for a risk management consulting firm.

The board voted 3-2 against the evaluation committee's recommendation to hire Holland Park at a Jan. 19 meeting, she said.

Because two board members who supported searching for a risk management consulting firm were not available for the meeting, Michael L. Fitzgerald, Iowa state treasurer and board chairman, decided to place the issue on the agenda for review at the board's March 25 meeting, she said.

Of the members opposed to the hiring, “one board member indicated he still did not fully understand what a risk management program would accomplish, and did not feel comfortable voting for it,” she said. “Another board member had concerns about spending money on the project during tough budget times, as well as some concern about the contractor's expected outcomes.”

The PBGC will assume responsibility for the pension plan of The Relizon Co., confirmed PBGC spokesman Gary Pastorius.

Relizon and its parent company, Workflow Management Inc., Norfolk, Va., are liquidating in Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Relizon's defined benefit pension plan is about 47% funded, with $49 million in assets to cover $104.4 million in liabilities. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. expects to assume responsibility for $54.7 million of the $55.4 million shortfall.

Mr. Pastorius said in an e-mailed response to questions that the plan has been frozen since Dec. 31, 2006.

David Brown and Christopher Ohmacht, co-presidents of Victory Capital Management, were appointed co-CEOs of the firm.

Robert Wagner, who had been CEO and chairman, will retain the title of chairman.

In a telephone interview, Mr. Wagner said the Feb. 17 appointments complete a leadership transition first announced in September. He said the co-president titles will be dropped.

Jean-Philippe Provost joined Mercer's investment consulting business in New York as U.S. business leader of the firm's international consulting group, confirmed Mercer spokesman Charles Salmans.

In a news release, Jacques Goulet, the U.S. leader of Mercer's retirement, risk and finance group, said Mr. Provost's experience will allow the firm to strengthen its business helping U.S.-based multinational clients manage “the costs, risks and complexity of their cross-border benefit and rewards programs.”

Mr. Provost was international consulting group leader for the Eastern U.S. and Canada at Towers Watson. Spokesman Michael McNamara said Bob Wesselkamper, the firm's ICG leader for the Americas, will take on those responsibilities on an interim basis until a successor is named.

Los Angeles County Employees' Retirement Association, Pasadena, Calif., selected Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers, Pacific Coast Capital Partners, and Quadrant Real Estate Advisors as finalists in a search for two managers to run up to $400 million combined in commercial real estate debt, said Lisa Mazzocco, chief investment officer of the $37 billion association.

The three managers have been invited to the board's meeting March 9, when a decision could be made.