Orange County Employees Retirement Association, Santa Ana, Calif., launched an RFP for a private equity fund-of-funds manager to run annual potential commitments of $400 million to $500 million from a group of California public pension funds.
California pension funds with between $5 billion and $25 billion are joining in the search in “an effort to secure a higher quality of management, improved access to top GPs and lower fees … than they would obtain through individual procurements,” according to the RFP.
The plan is to select one firm for an all-purpose or multistrategy private equity fund of funds. Proposals may include single or multiple vintage years. Bidders may also propose specialized private equity funds for venture capital, buyouts and/or secondaries, but all proposals must include a “core” all-purpose fund, the RFP states. OCERS has volunteered to serve as the central administrative coordinator.
OCERS executives declined to identify the other pension funds involved because they are in the process of research and negotiations. However, in an e-mail, Girard Miller, chief investment officer for the $10.9 billion pension fund, said they include a number of county and municipal members of the California Association of Public Retirement Systems, and county members of the State Association of County Retirement Systems. They do not include the $277.3 billion California Public Employees' Retirement System, Sacramento, or the $175.9 billion California State Teachers' Retirement System, West Sacramento, “which are large enough to obtain pricing advantages on their own,” he wrote.
The RFP is available on OCERS' website. Responses are due Jan. 13 at 3 p.m. PST. A selection is expected in mid-March.
