Orange County Employees Retirement System, Santa Ana, Calif., committed $50 million to $100 million annually for each of the next three years to Pantheon Ventures for a private equity fund-of-funds portfolio.
The hire follows a unique bundled search organized by OCERS that required managers to create an open architecture platform to offer a group of public pension funds greater flexibility and lower fees than the pension funds could negotiate on their own, said Girard Miller, chief investment officer for the $11.5 billion pension fund.
OCERS' and other public pension funds' commitments to the private equity fund-of-funds program are contingent on Pantheon obtaining an independent legal opinion on antitrust issues, according to a memo to the investment committee for its March 26 meeting.
NEPC, OCERS' general consultant, assisted with the search. 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 was issued in December.
“Several of our public pension clients participated in the collaborative selection process and were enthusiastic about the outcome,” said Allan Martin, NEPC partner, said in a news release. “We expect that Pantheon's program will be viewed favorably by a number of public plans.”
