Kern County Employees' Retirement Association, Bakersfield, Calif., will likely hire AllianceBernstein and Geneva Capital Management to run $65 million each in active domestic small-cap equities, said Peter Tirp, chief investment officer.
The $3.7 billion pension fund's investment committee at its May 6 meeting recommended hiring AllianceBernstein to run a value portfolio, and Geneva Capital to run a growth portfolio.
Partial funding comes from terminating growth manager Columbia Threadneedle Investments, which ran $55 million, and value manager Fisher Investments, which ran $50 million. Both were active domestic small-cap equity managers. The rest of funding comes from a domestic equity index fund managed by Mellon Capital Management. Mr. Tirp did not have a portfolio size for Mellon Capital.
Columbia was terminated for underperformance and Fisher was terminated for style drift. Columbia spokesman Carlos Melville and David Eckerly, Fisher group vice president, had declined to comment in April when it was reported the firms might be terminated.
Separately, the investment committee recommended making a direct hedge fund investment of $17 million in a credit-focused distressed hedge fund managed by River Birch Capital.
The pension fund's board will vote on the recommendations at its June 10 meeting.
