Colorado Public Employees' Retirement Association, Denver, is searching for a firm to provide investment research access and/or operational due diligence for its alternatives asset class.
The $57.6 billion pension fund has issued an RFP because the board has decided to move from a full consulting services model to a research-only model for the alternatives asset class, said spokesman Patrick von Keyserling.
COPERA will move away from the full consulting services model because investment staff has gained additional experience with alternatives, and because the alternatives model has matured and reached its overall target allocation, said von Keyserling.
"Also, a research-only model will continue to provide PERA staff with access to research products on various alternative asset classes and investment managers," he said.
The pension fund's current alternatives consultant, Aksia, is eligible to bid for the limited services, he added.
The RFP says specifically the pension fund is seeking proposals from firms that provide access to "an on-line portal containing investment research, due diligence materials and analytical tools for the alternatives asset class only."
The pension fund's alternatives asset class does not include private equity or real estate, which have their own targets. Within alternatives, the subcategories are opportunistic investments (which includes opportunistic credit, private credit secondaries, specialty lending and others), real assets (which includes infrastructure equity, agriculture and timber), and risk mitigation (which consists of multistrategy and global macro hedge funds).
As of Sept. 30, the actual allocation to alternatives was 6.8%; the target is 6%.
The RFP is available on the pension fund's website. Proposals are due on March 1. A selection is scheduled for June 1.
