Montana Board of Investments, Helena, is expected to approve a $15 million commitment to a buyout fund, add $10 million to a real estate fund, move $99 million from a terminated manager and place another firm on watch, according to an investment report included with the agenda for the board meeting Tuesday.
The board, which oversees $7.4 billion in retirement assets from nine separate funds, committed $15 million to the Gridiron Capital Fund II, a buyout fund. It is the board's first investment with Gridiron.
An additional $10 million was committed to the Angelo Gordon Core Plus Fund III, a value-added real estate fund. The board previously committed $25 million to the same fund; it has also invested in the second series of the fund.
Investment staff also approved terminating Artio Global Investors for performance and placing Post Advisory Group on its watchlist.
Artio ran $99 million in a large-cap core international equity mandate. Neil Shapiro, spokesman for Artio Global, said it is company policy not to comment on client activity.
The Artio assets were moved to three BlackRock index funds — $54 million to the existing ACWI ex-U.S. fund, for a total of $592 million; as well as $25 million to the Emerging Markets fund; and $20 million to the Small Cap International Equity fund. The latter two funds are new investments.
Post Advisory, which runs $55 million in a high-yield portfolio, was placed on watch for performance and personnel changes, which has consistently been lagging its benchmark, the Barclays High Yield Index, the report said. A call to Post Advisors was not returned by press time.
Executive Director David Ewer was not available for additional information.
