The governing board of the New York State Teachers' Retirement System, Albany, reported that the pension system had an unaudited return on investment, net of fees, of 9.6% for the three months ended Dec. 31, 2020, the second quarter of the pension system's fiscal year. The unaudited return was 5.6% for the three months ended Dec. 31, 2019.
The announcement was made Thursday at the board's quarterly meeting held virtually. Unaudited total assets, net of fees, were $137.9 billion for the three months ended March 31, up 2% from the previous three months and up 25.9% from the quarter ended March 31, 2020, which reflected the greatest impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
During the meeting, the board voted to renew a one-year contract with StepStone Group to serve as the system's private equity and private debt consultant. The renewal took effect Feb. 1, and StepStone consults on $12.8 billion in assets.
The board also endorsed other one-year renewals, including a contract with Aon Hewitt Investment Consulting, now known as Aon, to provide board self-assessment services. "These services pertain to an annual board self-evaluation and board governance-related training," Heidi Brennan, a spokeswoman wrote in an email. The renewal takes effect May 1.
The board approved one-year contract renewals for several investment managers:
- LSV Asset Management to manage $1.3 billion as a global equity manager benchmarked to the MSCI ACWI index, effective July 25.
- Wellington Management Co. to manage $1 billion in a global aggregate fixed-income mandate benchmarked to the Bloomberg Barclays Global Aggregate Float Adjusted Bond Index, effective June 20.
- LSV Asset Management to manage $841 million as an international equity manager benchmarked to the MSCI ACWI Ex-U.S. index, effective July 25.
- Adelante Capital Management LLC to manage a $469 million by actively investing in securities of real estate investment trusts and real estate operating companies, effective July 1.
The board also voted to renew for one year a contract with J.P. Morgan Chase Bank to act as an agency-securities lender for a portion of the public securities assets, effective July 1. “The agreement pertains to the lending of NYSTRS’ domestic public securities assets, notably U.S. stocks and bonds, excluding any global mandates,” Ms. Brennan said.
The board also voted to authorize Thomas Lee, executive director and CIO, to contract with Abacus Capital Group to develop a separate account "that will focus on investing in multifamily assets in markets where the predominant employment drivers are top tier medical and education centers" in the U.S., Ms. Brennan wrote.
Like other separate accounts, "the system will retain discretion on acquisition, dispositions and key decisions for any investments," she wrote. "This will be an evergreen account where each individual transaction will go through NYSTRS' formal approval processes. A specific allocation to the program is not set; rather, allocations are made with each specific transaction."
