New Mexico Educational Retirement Board, Santa Fe, plans to launch a search for a real estate and natural resources consultant this week, said Bob Jacksha, chief investment officer for the $11.3 billion pension fund, in an e-mail.
The board’s contract with incumbent Real Asset Portfolio Management expires in mid-April. The RFP will be posted on the pension fund’s website. Real Asset Portfolio Management will be invited to rebid.
The board, which is looking for one consultant for both asset classes, has 7% of its assets in real estate and 4.5% in natural resources.
Separately, the pension fund produced a net return of 7.8%, outperforming its policy benchmark by 120 basis points for the year ended Dec. 31. It also topped its 7.75% assumed rate of return. The best-performing asset class was real estate at 22.1%, followed by private equity at 18.6%. The worst-performing asset class was non-U.S. developed markets equities at -5.2%, followed by emerging markets debt at -3.5%, Mr. Jacksha stated.
“The U.S. was obviously the place to be in 2014,” Mr. Jacksha wrote.
The pension fund’s annualized return for the three years ended Dec. 31 was 10.9%; five years, 9.2%; and 10 years, 6.5%.
