AJO LP did something a little different when a longtime investor placed the Philadelphia quant manager and hedge fund firm on watch for performance.
AJO executives publicly acknowledged the firm's problems and complimented the $14.9 billion Los Angeles City Employees' Retirement System for its watchlist process. Rodney June, LACERS' chief investment officer, could not be reached by press time.
AJO has managed $148 million in domestic large-cap value equity for the pension fund since 2001.
“The 2016 market environment has been unkind to our portfolio positioning in an unprecedented way, and indeed, we deserve our watchlist status,” said Gina Marie N. Moore, an AJO portfolio manager, in an e-mail to Pensions & Investments.
On Aug. 9, Theodore R. Aronson, managing principal of AJO, appeared before LACERS' investment committee. Even then, AJO brought something a bit different to the conversation about investment strategy. On the first page of AJO's presentation is a cartoon from Conde Nast's cartoon bank of a gentleman in a pinstriped suit standing at a podium pointing to an incomprehensible chart that has the caption: “I'll pause for a moment so you can let this information sink in.”