California State Teachers' Retirement System, West Sacramento, hired Legion Partners Asset Management, a new activist investing firm, to run $200 million, and also is taking a 30% stake in the firm, said Ricardo Duran, a CalSTRS spokesman, in an interview.
He said this is the first time CalSTRS has acquired an equity interest in a money management firm, which he called a mechanism to reduce fees with Legion, whose strategy appealed to the investment staff.
“With this ownership feature, a portion of the fees collected are returned to CalSTRS,” he said.
He said the $183.3 billion pension fund has about $4.6 billion invested in strategies with activist managers.