Los Angeles City Employees' Retirement System's board on Monday renewed Wasatch Advisors' contract to manage a $280 million active emerging markets growth small-cap equities portfolio for three years.
Wasatch has been managing the portfolio for the LACERS $21.1 billion pension fund since December 2020. The firm's current contract expires on September 30.
While rising interest rates and inflation negatively impacted Wasatch's performance growth strategy, hitting the technology companies in the portfolio especially hard, Wasatch has run the LACERS' account for less than three years, which is not a long enough time period to evaluate Wasatch's potential value to the portfolio, staff explained to the board.
Separately, LACERS has $3 million of exposure in Russia in emerging markets debt, said CIO Rod June. The amount of the portfolio exposure hasn't changed in months because there is no viable market to trade the securities, Mr. June said.
