Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund, Oak Brook, is searching for a minority-owned money manager of managers to oversee at least $100 million in active international equity and/or fixed-income portfolios.
The $44.7 billion pension fund is soliciting proposals from managers that offer a multimanager solution "solely utilizing underlying managers that qualify as minority-owned investment managers as defined by the Illinois Pension Code," according to an RFP posted on the pension fund's website.
As of Dec. 31, IMRF had $10.5 billion allocated to its minority manager program across domestic equities, international equities, fixed income, private equity and real estate asset classes. Through manager-of-manager contracts, IMRF has 71 minority-owned manager portfolios running a total of $1.8 billion.
The RFP does not provide a reason for the pension fund's search, but one of its current manager of managers, Progress Investment Management, recently announced it would be closing in mid-2020. As of Dec. 31, the manager oversaw $942 million in active international equity portfolios and $348 million in fixed-income portfolios for the pension fund, according to IMRF's most recently available investment report.
The RFP is available on IMRF's website. Proposals are due at 4:30 p.m. CST on Feb. 24. Finalist presentations are scheduled for May 28, with a decision expected shortly thereafter.
John Krupa, IMRF spokesman, could not be immediately reached to provide further information.
