New Mexico Public Employees preps for global equity hunt

New Mexico Public Employees Retirement Association, Santa Fe, plans to issue an RFI for a global equity manager, according to a staff report of the $17.8 billion pension plan.

Details of the mandate are not currently available and the timeline for the search have not been set.

The pending search is part of several changes being made as a result of pension officials' restructuring the plan's $6.3 billion global public stock portfolio in which it eliminated its overlay program, terminating those managers, and rebalanced the portfolio for now.

The global stock portfolio structure will now consist of actively and passively managed long-only global equities. As part of the restructuring, New Mexico PERA discontinued Legal & General Investment Management America's $182 million tactical asset allocation and alpha overlay programs. The notional value of its alpha overlay program was $31 million.

Pension officials in September hired State Street Global Advisors for a Russell 1000 Index separately managed account.

New Mexico PERA is also terminating a $246 million TimesSquare small/midcap growth account. Pension officials selected Russell Investments as transition manager.

Separately, pension officials made one add-on commitment to an existing alternative investment fund and three commitments to new alternative investment funds totaling up to $195 million.

New Mexico PERA committed an additional $100 million to Stockbridge Niche Logistics Fund, a core-plus, open-end industrial real estate fund managed by Stockbridge Core and Value Advisors. The new commitment brings the pension plan's total commitment to the fund to $200 million. New Mexico PERA is providing seed capital and is a founding limited partner for this fund.

The pension fund also committed a combined $85 million to General Catalyst Fund Group XI, which is made up of three funds: General Catalyst Group XI-Creation Fund, General Catalyst Group XI-Ignition Fund, and General Catalyst Group XI-Endurance Fund. The group of venture capital funds are managed by General Catalyst Partners. This is a new relationship for New Mexico PERA.

Pension officials also committed up to $60 million to Kelso Investment Associates XI, a middle market buyout fund managed by Kelso & Co. The fund will invest mostly in the U.S., but up to 40% of fund capital can be invested outside North America.

Past investments with Kelso from PERA include $60 million each in Kelso Investment Associates X and IX, and $30 million in Kelso Investment Associates VIII.

Pension officials also committed up to $50 million to Trident IX, a private equity fund investing in financial services companies in North America and Western Europe. The fund is managed by Stone Point Capital, a new relationship for New Mexico PERA.