Illinois Teachers' Retirement System, Springfield, committed a total of $665 million to six alternative investment funds managed by five existing managers.
During an investment committee meeting Tuesday, investment officers of the $52.3 billion fund updated trustees about the commitments they made Oct. 16 to Nov. 20. TRS staff have discretion to hire and terminate managers.
Exeter Property Group received the largest commitment of $321 million, with €200 million ($221 million) going to Exeter Europe Industrial Core Fund and $100 million to Exeter Industrial Value Fund V. The manager currently runs $29 million for TRS within the fund's $8.1 billion real assets portfolio.
From the $6.3 billion private equity portfolio, investment officers committed $125 million to RCP Multi-Feeder SBO 1.0, a separately managed private equity fund-of-funds. RCP Advisors, the fund's manager, currently manages $51.6 million.
Private equity manager SK Capital Partners received a $44 million commitment to SKCP Catalyst Fund 1-A. The firm currently manages $6.6 million for TRS.
TRS committed $125 million to Apollo Revolver Fund, managed by Apollo Global Management, from the $14.4 billion global income portfolio. Apollo currently manages $525 million for the fund in other private debt and private equity funds.
An additional $50 million was committed to the Solar Capital Partners Private Corporate Lending Fund platform. Solar Capital currently manages $125 million within the global income portfolio.
Franklin Templeton Investment Management was terminated for management of a $392 million actively managed emerging market debt opportunities following the retirement of the fund's portfolio manager, said R. Stanley Rupnik, TRS' CIO during the investment committee meeting. The name of the portfolio manager could not be learned. The redeemed assets will be used for rebalancing, Mr. Rupnik said. Franklin Templeton continues to manage $766 million in global unconstrained bonds.
In other news from the TRS board meeting, trustees hired StepStone Group as the fund's consultant for real estate and private equity for five-year contracts beginning Jan. 1.
StepStone is the incumbent for real estate and TorreyCove Capital Partners is the fund's current private equity adviser.
Trustees also approved a staff recommendation to hire Voya Financial as the record keeper for the TRS Supplemental Savings Plan, an optional 457(b) plan scheduled to start July 1.
Carlton Lenoir, chief benefits officer, told trustees that TRS staff are developing the investment line-up for the defined contribution plan in collaboration with Cammack Retirement Group, the consultant to the 457(b) plan. The board likely will be asked to approve the investment options for the plan at its Feb. 28 meeting.
The board also approved a search for a consultant to perform a limited-scope fiduciary evaluation of the fund's investment practices and policies.
The RFP will be posted Dec. 13 on the Illinois Teachers website. The likely timing of the governance consultant hire was not announced during Tuesday's meeting.
