New York State Teachers' Retirement System, Albany, had total assets of $103 billion as of Dec. 31, up 5% from three months earlier, confirmed John Cardillo, the pension fund's spokesman.
Audited investment returns for the most recent quarter will be available in about three months, Mr. Cardillo said in a e-mail. The pension fund posted a 5.1% investment return for the three months ended Sept. 30, the first quarter of its current fiscal year.
Mr. Cardillo added that the pension fund's governing board has approved several contract renewals, each for one year and each taking effect when the respective contracts expire.
The renewals are:
- BlackRock to manage $464.5 million in commercial mortgage-backed securities, effective April 3;
- FIS Group to manage $101.7 million as a manager of international equity managers benchmarked to the MSCI ACWI ex-U.S. index, effective April 25;
- Iridian Asset Management to manage $903.2 million in active domestic midcap equities, effective April 1; and
- Torchlight Investors to manage $399 million in CMBS, effective March 30.
Each renewal was approved by the governing board at its quarterly meeting Thursday.
In addition, the board:
- Authorized Thomas Lee, the fund's executive director and chief investment officer, to renew an agreement with Callan Associates to serve as the pension fund's real estate consultant, for one year, ending Feb. 1, 2015.Callan has been the consultant since 2005, Mr. Cardillo wrote; and
- Authorized Mr. Lee to renew the contract with KPMG for audit services, including examining the pension fund's financial statements for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2014. KPMG has been the fund's auditor “for several years,” Mr. Cardillo wrote.
