San Diego County Employees Retirement Association expects to begin interviews for an internal chief investment officer on Jan. 5 with a selection to be made as early as Feb. 6, Mary Hobson, executive vice president of executive search firm EFL Associates, told the board of the $10.5 billion pension fund at Thursday's board meeting.
Separately, pension fund officials plan to commit capital to separate accounts and co-investments as a way of cutting fees in its $2.1 billion private markets portfolio, which includes private equity, real estate and real assets.
The pension fund expects to nearly double the net asset value of its private equity portfolio to $1 billion from $521 million through portfolio appreciation, capital calls and new fund commitments that will result in 25 to 35 total commitments of $50 million to $100 million each, according to a presentation to the board by Yegin Chen, SDCERA investment officer. No timeline for such an increase was provided in the board materials.
Pension fund officials plan to gradually commit more capital to fewer private equity funds, said Dan Flores, SDCERA spokesman, in an e-mail.
“New private equity investments for SDCERA will have a larger fund commitments ($50 million-$100 million) compared to the older fund commitments ($10 million-$15 million). This means that, over time, the number of funds will be reduced while each fund commitment size is larger,” Mr. Flores wrote.
Pension officials are studying buyout and distressed investments in Latin America, India and Southeast Asia; special situations in Europe; and alternatives to venture capital as areas for private equity investment.
