Connecticut Retirement Plans & Trust Funds, Hartford, terminated five investment managers for strategic reasons during 2012 and early 2013, confirmed David Barrett, communications director for the state Treasurer's Office.
“The Treasury's monitoring process … focuses on ensuring the continued strategic fit and performance of the CRPTF's managers, which means that terminations are a standard practice in our business, notwithstanding a firm's potential good standing with other clients,” Mr. Barrett wrote in an e-mail.
State Treasurer Denise Nappier is the principal fiduciary for the $26.1 billion Connecticut Retirement Plans & Trust Funds.
Last year, three firms were terminated from the pension system's developed international markets equity portfolio — BlackRock, Pyramis Global Advisors, and Invesco, Mr. Barrett wrote. All were active managers, and they ran a total of $943 million in this portfolio.
“Eighty percent of these proceeds was invested in a passive mandate, and the balance was redistributed to an existing active manager,” Mr. Barrett wrote. State Street Global Advisors is the passive manager, and Acadian Asset Management is the active manager.
In addition, two managers — Pyramis Global Advisors and Numeric Investors — were terminated from the pension system's domestic equity portfolio for strategic reasons in January, Mr. Barrett wrote. They managed a total of $435 million.
Both firms “had managed active extension strategies (“130/30”) for the domestic equity portfolio,” Mr. Barrett wrote. These assets were transferred to an “enhanced risk strategy” portfolio managed by T. Rowe Price, he added.
