San Francisco City & County Employees' Retirement System hired Van Berkom and Associates to run up to $200 million in active domestic small-cap equities, said Norm Nickens, board secretary.
The $24 billion pension fund currently has about $28 million allocated to Van Berkom and Associates as an underlying manager in a manager-of-emerging managers portfolio managed by Bivium Capital Partners. The hiring reflects what documents for a Wednesday board meeting say is a "graduation" to direct management status. By SFERS' definition, an emerging manager is one with assets under management of $2 billion or less, and as of Sept. 30, Van Berkom's AUM had risen to $4.7 billion.
Investment consultant NEPC assisted.
Van Berkom & Associates is one of two underlying managers in Bivium's portfolio, the other being Phocas Financial with a $26 million portfolio. A vote to terminate Bivium was scheduled for Wednesday's meeting due to the pension fund's decision to focus on direct manager relationships, but the vote was tabled for the pension fund's Feb. 14 board meeting, Mr. Nickens said.
