Texas State Board of Education on Friday approved a search for an investment consultant for the $29.9 billion Texas Permanent School Fund, Austin, which the board oversees.
The contract for the fund’s current consultant, NEPC, expires Aug. 31, said Holland Timmins, the Permanent School Fund’s executive administrator and chief investment officer, a webcast of the Thursday meeting of the Committee on School Finance/Permanent Fund showed.
NEPC will be allowed to rebid.
The RFP will be posted Feb. 20 on the Texas Electronic State Business Daily website http://esbd.cpa.state.tx.us and responses are due by 3 p.m. CDT on March 11, said meeting support documents. The finance committee will select the consultant at its July 16 meeting, and the full board will consider the committee’s recommendation on July 17.
The approved consultant will start as soon contracts are signed, the meeting documents showed. Mr. Timmins said the contract will expire Aug. 31, 2018, with two optional three-year contract extensions.
Separately, the full board approved the finance committee’s recommendation to commit up to $50 million to PAG Asia Special Situations Fund II, managed by Pacific Alliance Group. The fund is in school fund’s real estate portfolio, John Grubenman, director of private markets, said during the webcast of the finance committee meeting, and invests in distressed debt.
Mr. Grubenman notified committee members that between board of education meetings, he used his investment discretion to commit up to $25 million to Blackstone Group and $20 million to Ares Management for separate real estate co-investments.
