Three Naples, Fla., pension funds hired Cohen & Steers and Lazard Asset Management to run a total of about $9 million each in infrastructure portfolios.
The pension funds' boards in a joint meeting Feb. 7 approved the recommendation of investment consultant Graystone Consulting to hire the managers to each run 5% of the three plans' assets, said Liz Willis, the city's pension accountant.
The pension fund conducted a shortlist search after approving the recommendation of Graystone to exit hedge funds of funds and master limited partnerships.
Hedge fund of funds managers BlackRock and Pine Grove Asset Management and MLP manager Cushing Asset Management were terminated at a prior meeting. The pension funds decided to exit the asset classes not based on the performance of the individual managers, Ms. Willis said.
BlackRock and Pine Grove split a total of $9 million across the pension funds and Cushing managed about $9 million across the pension funds.
The three pension funds are the $64 million Naples General Employees' Retirement System, $63 million Naples Firefighters' Retirement System and $58 million Naples Police Officers' Retirement System.
