Investment staff of the $54 billion Illinois Teachers' Retirement System, Springfield, committed a total of $375 million to three existing money managers during the two months between board meetings.
During an investment committee meeting conducted remotely Thursday, R. Stanley Rupnik, TRS' CIO and interim executive director, informed trustees that a total commitment of $275 million had been made from the fund's $6.5 billion private equity portfolio.
RCP Advisors received commitments totaling $175 million, with $125 million to RCP SBO Fund II and $50 million to RCP SBO Opportunities Fund for investment in middle-market deals.
RCP manages $199 million in other funds for TRS.
TRS staff also committed $100 million from the private equity pool to Clearlake Capital Group's Clearlake Flagship Plus Partners, a special situations fund. The fund's portfolio managers will invest alongside other Clearlake funds to take advantage of opportunities resulting from impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Clearlake manages $412 million in other strategies for TRS.
From TRS' $15.5 billion global income portfolio, $100 million was committed to Oaktree Capital Management's Oaktree Real Estate Debt Fund III.
Oaktree manages $223 million in other funds for the system.
During the investment committee's annual review of TRS' global income portfolio, Scottie D. Bevill, senior investment officer for global fixed income, proposed a pacing plan for private debt which would commit up to $1 billion a year through fiscal year-end June 30 to bring the sub-asset class to its 8% target allocation of total assets from 5.9% ($3.2 billion) as of Aug. 31.
Trustees approved the pacing plan Friday, during the system's regular board of trustees meeting.
During Friday's virtual board meeting, trustees approved the hire of executive recruiter Korn Ferry to find a new executive director for the system after a search.
The retirement system's previous executive director, Richard Ingram, resigned on Aug. 3 Ingram after he was placed on administrative leave by the board on July 31 "due to performance issues covered by his employment contract," an Aug. 6 TRS news release said.
TRS spokesman David Urbanek said in an email that the timing of a search for a new executive director has not been set.
In other news from the board meeting, TRS actuary Segal Consultants reported that the system's unfunded liability increased by $2.6 billion in the fiscal year ended June 30 to $80.7 billion. The funded status of the defined benefit plan as of June 30 dropped slightly to 40.5%, compared to 40.6% in fiscal-year 2019 and 40.7% for fiscal-year 2018, a TRS news release said.
"TRS has enough money on hand to pay all pensions for years into the future, but we're treading water financially," Mr. Rupnik said in the release. "The system still carries a large long-term unfunded liability that leaves TRS vulnerable in an era of economic uncertainty caused by the coronavirus."
