Austin (Texas) City Employees' Retirement System is searching for an investment consultant, said David T. Veal, chief investment officer, in an e-mail.
Summit Strategies Group has been the pension fund’s investment consultant since 1999 and is invited to rebid.
The RFP is available on the $2.2 billion pension fund’s website. Proposals are due by 5 p.m. CST on Dec. 6. A hiring decision is anticipated by July 1.
Separately, the pension fund hired Legal & General Investment Management America and Baillie Gifford to manage $200 million total in emerging markets equity. Legal & General will run a strategy benchmarked to an EDHEC-Risk Institute Scientific Beta index; Baillie Gifford will manage an active strategy.
Funding will come from the terminations of emerging markets equity managers Dimensional Fund Advisors and City of London Investment Management, and an MSCI index fund managed by Northern Trust Asset Management. They managed about $200 million combined.
Additionally, the pension fund terminated U.S. equity managers AJO and Westfield Capital Management. Proceeds from the AJO and Westfield terminations, totaling roughly $120 million, will be reallocated to an ERI Scientific Beta index strategy managed by Northern Trust, which had $340 million in assets as of March 31.
It is anticipated the pension fund will achieve “better risk-adjusted performance and more diversified factor exposure” under the revised equity portfolio structure, Mr. Veal wrote.
As of June 30, the pension fund had a target asset allocation of 30% each international and domestic equity, 24.5% fixed income, 5.5% real estate, 5% risk parity, 4% master limited partnerships and 1% commodities.
