Illinois Teachers' Retirement System, Springfield, committed a total of $224 million to two existing managers.
The $51.3 billion pension fund committed €100 million ($124 million) to EQT VIII, a European private equity fund. TRS has a total of $156 million invested in the two prior funds in EQT's series.
TRS also committed $100 million to PIMCO Distressed Senior Credit Opportunities Fund II.
The investment is TRS' second to the PIMCO fund. A total of $125 million was invested in the fund in 2013 and the pension fund subsequently took a scheduled distribution. TRS was able to invest in PIMCO DISCO II again when the fund had new capacity, R. Stanley Rupnik, chief investment officer, told trustees during a during an investment committee Thursday.
Pacific Investment Management Co. manages an additional $2.9 billion in various strategies for the pension fund.
Separately, Mondrian Investment Partners' $324 million active international small-cap core equity portfolio was terminated for performance reasons, Mr. Rupnik said.
Paul M. Ross, president of Mondrian Investment Partners (U.S.) did not respond to a call for comment by press time.
Mondrian continues to manage $783 million in active international large-cap value equities.
Existing TRS manager, Strategic Global Advisors, received $260 million of the assets redeemed from Mondrian's international small-cap fund for investment in an existing international small-cap core equity strategy, for a new total of $381 million.
The balance of the Mondrian redemption went into a cash account for use in portfolio rebalancing, Mr. Rupnik said.
Strategic Global Advisors also manages $562 million in an active large-cap international equity strategy for the pension fund.
The investment actions were described to trustees by Mr. Rupnik as part of a new reporting process during the meeting on Thursday. TRS investment officers were granted investment decision-making discretion for all asset classes — with the approval of the investment committee chair — by the board in December.
Separately, the pension fund's preliminary net annualized returns for periods ended Dec. 31 were 14.5% for the year (benchmark, 14.1%); three years, 7.6% (8%); five years, 9% (9.4%); seven years, 8.5% (8.7%); 10 years, 5.3% (5.8%); 20 years, 7% (6.8%); and 30 years, 8.6% (8.7%).
