Kern County Employees' Retirement Association, Bakersfield, Calif., will likely make a direct hedge fund investment of $17 million with quantitative equity market-neutral manager Menta Capital, said Peter Tirp, chief investment officer.
The $3.7 billion pension fund's investment committee approved the investment at its meeting on Wednesday. The pension fund's board will vote on the investment on Jan. 14.
The pension fund created a target of 10% to direct investments in July 2013.
Separately, the investment committee voted to terminate Neuberger Berman from a $70 million high-yield bond portfolio due to underperformance. Neuberger Berman spokesman Alexander Samuelson declined to comment.
Assets will likely be moved to a high-yield bond portfolio managed by Western Asset Management Co., giving the manager a total of $145 million. Mr. Tirp said the pension fund plans to go forward with WAMCO as its sole high-yield manager and cited the manager's client service as a primary reason for that move.
