Santa Barbara County (Calif.) Employees' Retirement System plans to search for a domestic small-cap growth equity manager to run $20 million, and issued an RFP for a consultant to cover both private natural resources and infrastructure, said Eli Martinez, investment officer.
The $2.31 billion pension fund will look at passive and active strategies for the small-cap manager. Bank of New York subsidiary Eagle Asset Management currently manages the allocation in active domestic small-cap growth equity. Pension officials are launching the search for performance reasons, Mr. Martinez said. Eagle may rebid. Liz Gunning spokeswoman for Eagle Asset Management declined to comment.
“There is no hard decision being made yet” to replace Eagle, Mr. Martinez said. “The intent of the search is to look at the landscape and look at competitors to see if we can get better returns.”
The RFP is expected to be launched the week of March 3 on investment consultant Meketa Investment Group's website.
The consultant RFP was posted after David Altshuler, senior vice president and infrastructure practice leader at Meketa and the pension fund's lead infrastructure and natural resources consultant, left the firm to become partner and co-head of the infrastructure and real assets group at StepStone Group, Mr. Martinez said. Meketa may rebid; the firm will remain the pension fund's general investment consultant.
The consultant RFP is on the pension fund's website. Responses are due March 31; the board could make a selection as early as June 25.
