San Luis Obispo County (Calif.) Pension Trust is searching for a private credit manager to run about $55 million, or 5% of the total $1.1 billion pension fund, said Carl Nelson, executive secretary and chief investment officer, in an e-mail.
No RFP has been issued. Interested firms may contact investment consultant Verus. A hiring decision is anticipated in the fourth quarter.
At its Aug. 22 meeting, the pension fund board approved a target asset allocation that included the new 5% target to private credit.
The other revised targets were 30% fixed income (from 35% previously), 20% each domestic and international equity (from 23% and 22%, respectively), 15% real estate (vs. 10%). The private equity and commodities targets were maintained at 5% each.
The fixed-income decrease resulted from the removal of a 5-percentage-point target to Treasury-inflation protected securities, now passively managed by State Street Global Advisors. The real estate increase represents a 5-percentage-point increase in core real estate, to 10%.
Mr. Nelson said that it has not been determined whether a search will be launched for a new core real estate manager. It’s possible the additional 5% will be invested with existing manager J.P. Morgan Asset Management, he said.
Also at its August meeting, the board hired WCM Investment Management to run approximately $130 million in international growth equity, pending final approvals.
WCM will replace Vontobel Asset Management, which ran about $130 million in a similar strategy.
A search was launched in March because of the departure of Rajiv Jain, chief investment officer of Vontobel's quality growth equities boutique and portfolio manager on the strategy. An RFP was not issued.
