Mississippi Public Employees’ Retirement System, Jackson, approved a recommendation at a board meeting Dec. 18 to add two equity fund managers to its watchlist, according to a spokeswoman for the $34.6 billion pension fund.
Artisan Partners, the asset manager for a mid-cap growth fund, and Riverbridge Partners, the asset manager for a small-cap growth fund, were both put on watch due to their rolling three-year relative performance, which lagged the benchmark and peer group, board meeting documents showed.
Neither Artisan Partners nor Riverbridge Partners responded to a request for comment.
The board also approved removing Wellington Management’s small-cap fund from the watchlist due to stable performance. The asset manager had been on watch since June 2023, according to board meeting materials.
In addition, the board approved a recommendation to initiate a search for a global growth equity manager to replace Epoch Investment Partners, which had been on watch since August 2022 for lagging performance.
Mississippi PERS did not issue a request for proposal and will use the database of its investment consultant, Callan, for the search. The anticipated size of the allocation is approximately $1 billion to $1.4 billion.
Epoch Investment Partners did not respond to a request for comment.