Kentucky Retirement Systems, Frankfort, hired State Street Global Markets as a transition manager, and terminated PIMCO and Pyramis Global Advisors because of personnel changes at the money managers, said David Peden, chief investment officer.
BlackRock is KRS’ other transition manager.
The retirement system — made up of the $11.5 billion pension fund and $4.1 billion insurance fund — had about $1 billion total invested with Pacific Investment Management Co. in a blended fixed-income strategy.
Pyramis managed about $275 million in international growth equity for the pension fund and $97.1 million for the insurance fund as of Dec. 31.
As of the same date, the pension fund had a roughly 19% allocation to international equity and 18% allocation to fixed income.
The PIMCO and Pyramis assets from will be transferred to existing managers. The managers and allocation sizes have not been determined, Mr. Peden said.
Separately, the board approved the framework for a real estate co-investment program at KRS, Mr. Peden said.
Funding will come from the retirement system’s real estate portfolio, which has a 5% allocation. No decisions have been made on investment managers at this time, Mr. Peden said.
Also, Rich Robben was appointed deputy CIO and director of fixed income, Mr. Peden said.
Mr. Robben replaces Chris Schelling as deputy CIO and Mr. Peden as director of fixed income. Mr. Robben was previously an investment officer at Stock Yards Bank and Trust, he wrote in an e-mail. He was also a member of the investment committee working primarily with foundations and endowments. Officials at Stock Yards could not immediately be reached for comment.
Mr. Schelling, who was also the director of absolute-return strategies at KRS, joined the $23.4 billion Texas Municipal Retirement System, Austin, in January as its first director of private equity.
A search is underway for a new absolute-return director at KRS.
