Kentucky County Employees’ Retirement System, Frankfort, hired J.P. Morgan Asset Management and T. Rowe Price Group to manage about $383 million each in active domestic large-cap equities and committed $70 million to Arctos American Football Fund.
The retirement system’s board approved the investment actions at its March 10 meeting, a webcast of the meeting showed.
J.P. Morgan Asset Management will run its U.S. large-cap core equity strategy, and T. Rowe Price will manage its structured research equity strategy. Funding will come from the termination of an internally managed U.S. large-cap factor-based portfolio with $397 million in assets, with the remainder coming from a reduction in an internally managed S&P 500 index portfolio.
According to a presentation included with March 10 meeting materials, investment staff and investment consultant Wilshire Advisors recommended hiring new external managers because factor tilts “have not been rewarded for a sustained period” and that new active managers would “add value by utilizing lower tracking error active management with reasonable fees given the exposure and performance.”
The board also approved the commitment to the buyout fund managed by Arctos Partners, which is intended to invest in multiple NFL franchises and other sports assets, according to a presentation included with board meeting materials. Arctos has so far purchased a 10% stake in the Buffalo Bills, the franchise announced Dec. 11.
Additionally, the board on March 10 approved an additional commitment of $75 million to American Rivers Fund, an open-end fund that targets investments in marine transportation leasing managed by Maritime Partners. The pension fund originally committed $175 million to the fund in 2023.
The retirement system’s nonhazardous employees pension fund has $10.1 billion in assets, while the hazardous employees pension fund has $3.6 billion in assets.
