New Mexico Educational Retirement Board, Santa Fe, plans to launch an RFP for general investment consultant later this month, said Bob Jacksha, chief investment officer for the $10.2 billion pension fund, in an e-mail.
Incumbent NEPC will be invited to rebid. NEPC’s contract is set to expire on Sept. 30. The RFP will be posted on the board’s website.
Separately, the investment council at its May 23 meeting hired Neuberger Berman to manage a $375 million emerging markets equities portfolio, Mondrian Investment Partners to run $300 million in an emerging markets small-cap equities and BlackRock to manage about $265 million in an EAFE index allocation.
BlackRock replaces active managers AllianceBernstein, which managed $117 million, and Baring Asset Management, which managed $130 million in an EAFE index portfolio. The investment committee made the switch because it decided to index most of its EAFE assets. Pyramis Global Advisors still manages $258 million in an active core strategy.
Neuberger Berman and Mondrian replace AllianceBernstein, which managed $580 million in emerging markets.
The fund returned 3.9% for the quarter and 10.2% for the year ended March 31. The best-performing asset class for the quarter was U.S. equity at 10.7%. The worst-performing asset class for the quarter was emerging markets equity at -2.7%.
For the year, the best-performing asset class was real estate at 15.2%, and the worst was real assets at -3.8%. (The board’s real-assets portfolio does not include real estate. It does include timber, agriculture, mitigation banking and infrastructure.)
