New York State Teachers' Retirement System, Albany, hired FIS Group to manage an initial $100 million in an international equity manager-of-managers program, confirmed Heidi Brennan, a spokeswoman for the $90.9 billion pension fund.
The portfolio will be benchmarked to the MSCI ACWI ex-U.S. index, and the contract with FIS will be subject to completion of due diligence, according to a posting on the pension fund's website.
Ms. Brennan, in an e-mail, said the $100 million “will come from our internally managed domestic equity index fund.”
The FIS hiring was one of several transactions approved by the board's trustees at their quarterly meeting Jan. 31. The board also:
- renewed an agreement with Iridian Asset Management, for one year starting April 1, to manage $778 million in active domestic midcap equity;
- renewed an agreement with BlackRock, for one year starting April 3, to manage $464 million in commercial mortgage-backed securities; and
- renewed an agreement with Torchlight Investors, for one year effective March 30, to manage $437 million in CMBS.
The board also re-elected for one year-terms R. Michael Kraus as president and David P. Keefe as vice president. Mr. Kraus was first elected board president in 2009; Mr. Keefe was first elected vice president in 2011.
Separately, Ms. Brennan wrote the pension system achieved an investment return of 4.53% for the three months ended Sept. 30.
