Kansas Public Employees Retirement System, Topeka, hired State Street Bank as custodian, committed to a private equity fund and terminated Pacific Investment Management Co. for performance and senior management personnel changes, said spokeswoman Kristen Basso, in an e-mail.
The $16 billion pension hired State Street to provide custodial banking services, pending successful contract negotiations, Ms. Basso wrote. An RFP was issued earlier this year for due diligence purposes. It could not be learned by press time whether the incumbent, BNY Mellon Asset Servicing, rebid.
Also, the pension fund committed $50 million to Centerbridge Capital Partners III, a distressed debt fund managed by Centerbridge Partners, Ms. Basso wrote. As of June 30 the pension's allocation to alternatives was 2.9%, with a long-term target of 8%.
PIMCO managed an $846 million core-plus fixed-income portfolio and $155 million diversified income portfolio for the pension fund.
Assets from the core-plus portfolio will be divided equally among existing core-plus managers MacKay Shields and T. Rowe Price. As of June 30, MacKay Shields and T. Rowe Price ran $787 million and $782 million in core-plus fixed income, respectively, for the pension fund.
Assets from the diversified income portfolio will be transferred to existing fixed-income managers Western Asset Management Co. and Loomis Sayles & Co. As of June 30, WAMCO and Loomis Sayles managed $164 million and $168 million in strategic fixed income, respectively, for the pension fund.
William H. Gross resigned as PIMCO's co-founder and chief investment officer on Sept. 26.
Mark Porterfield, spokesman for PIMCO, could not be reached for a comment by press time.