Cook County Employees’ and Officers’ Annuity & Benefit Fund changed its passive domestic large-cap growth equity manager and approved a new buyout fund commitment at a recent board meeting.
The $13.3 billion pension fund’s board approved the actions at its Sept. 5 meeting, according to recently obtained meeting minutes.
First, the board hired RhumbLine Advisers to manage $585 million in passive domestic large-cap growth equities.
The hiring was the result of the pension fund’s termination of Russell Investments from a similar portfolio. According to the minutes, the manager declined to restructure its fee arrangement so “it would be more comparable to its peers.” The minutes said RhumbLine agreed to a lower fee structure to manage the same Russell 1000 Growth mandate.
RhumbLine already manages a $2.9 billion passive domestic large-cap core equity portfolio for the pension fund.
Separately, the board at its Sept. 5 meeting approved a commitment of $120 million to Mesirow Private Equity Fund IX, a buyout fund managed by Mesirow Financial. The board also approved a commitment of $10 million to the Mesirow fund on behalf of the $201 million Cook County Forest Preserve District Employees’ Annuity & Benefit Fund.
Finally, also at the Sept. 5 meeting, the board terminated Mondrian Investment Partners from its $162 million active international small-cap equity portfolio. The minutes cited underperformance issues and a decline in the manager’s assets under management as the reason for termination. The board approved reallocating the assets to an existing passive international core equity portfolio managed by State Street Global Advisors, increasing that portfolio to about $1.34 billion.
James Brecker III, head of global client service and business development at Mondrian, could not be immediately reached for comment.
As of June 30, the employees’ and officers’ pension fund had actual allocations to domestic equities, international equities and private equity of 37.9%, 21% and 6.1%, respectively; their respective targets are 32%, 20% and 5%.
As of that date, the forest preserve district employees’ pension fund had no exposure to private equity. Its target allocation is 6%.
Investment consultant Callan assisted with all actions.
