Texas Permanent School Fund, Austin, will search for its first emerging markets equity managers to run a total of $888 million.
The Texas State Board of Education, which oversees management of the $29.6 billion Permanent School Fund, approved the search recommendation of its finance committee at an April 11 meeting, according to a webcast of the proceedings.
Debate during a meeting of the Committee on School Finance/Permanent School Fund the previous day centered on whether to search for active, low-tracking-error or passive managers. In the end, committee members approved an RFP for managers with tracking error between zero and 200 basis points in order to reduce performance fees, a webcast of that meeting showed.
Holland Timmins, PSF's executive administrator and chief investment officer, said the RFP likely will be issued May 2; proposals will be due May 21; and finalist presentations will take place at the finance committee's Sept. 19 meeting.
Mr. Timmins did not specify during the meeting how many passive or low-tracking-error emerging markets equity managers will be sought or the size of the allocation.
DeEtta Culbertson, a spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency, which serves the State Board of Education, did not respond by press time to e-mailed requests for RFP specifics such as the size of the mandate.
However, according to Board of Education meeting financial reports, the Permanent School Fund's asset allocation includes an as-yet unfilled 3% allocation to emerging markets equity, about $888 million in current dollars.
