Illinois Teachers’ Retirement System, Springfield, preapproved UBS Securities, CP Cogent Securities and Park Hill Group as private equity and real estate secondary market advisers.
Trustees of the $39.6 billion pension fund made their decision at a Friday board meeting.
Jerry Quandt, investment officer, said the pension fund needs to be able to sell “legacy assets” within the $4.4 billion private equity and $4.6 billion real estate portfolios, “limited partnerships we don’t want to be invested in any more.”
The advisers may also assist TRS investment staff in purchasing suitable private equity partnerships on the secondary market, Mr. Quandt told trustees during a Wednesday investment committee meeting.
Separately, the board of trustees rehired Buck Consultants as the pension fund’s actuarial consultant for a three-year contract beginning July 1. Gabriel Roeder Smith was the other finalist.
The board also approved alternative investment commitments totaling $330 million:
- Black River Agriculture Fund II, $75 million in real assets;
- GI Partners Fund IV, $75 million in private equity;
- Oaktree Real Estate Opportunities Fund VI, $75 million in private equity;
- NXT Capital Senior Loan Fund II, $40 million in fixed income;
- Great Point Partners Fund II, up to $35 million in private equity and TRS’ emerging managers program; and
- Maranon Senior Credit Fund II, $30 million, in fixed income and part of the emerging managers program.
Trustees also ratified the hire of Northern Trust Global Investments to manage $300 million in a passive emerging markets equity strategy that the investment staff had made. NTGI already managed $2 billion in passive core international equity.
The staff also awarded Taplin Canida & Habacht $175 million to manage in a customized floating-rate cash strategy.
Funding for all hires came from cash, passive/enhanced index funds or rebalancing.
Trustees also ratified staff terminations of Frontier Capital Management from a $139 million active U.S. small-cap growth equity strategy and Trilogy Global Advisors from a $400 million active international growth equity portfolio. Both firms were on TRS’ watchlist.
Greg Turk, director of investments, told trustees that both terminations were made for performance reasons.
Calls seeking comment about the terminations were not returned by Stephen M. Knightly, president of Frontier Capital, and William Sterling, Trilogy Global’s CEO and chief investment officer.
