New York State Teachers' Retirement System, Albany, hired Nomura Corporate Research and Asset Management to run $150 million in a high-yield fixed-income mandate benchmarked to the ICE BofA U.S. High Yield Constrained index.
The governing board's action, subject to completing due diligence, was announced at its quarterly meeting Wednesday.
At the meeting, the board also reported that assets for the fiscal year ended June 30 were $130.4 billion, down 10.4% from June 30, 2021.
The board also approved a series of one-year renewals with investment managers across several asset categories.
The renewals are:
- T. Rowe Price Group for $1.2 billion in domestic enhanced index equity, effective Oct. 30.
- Prima Capital Advisors for $734 million in U.S. commercial mortgage-backed securities and private real estate debt, effective Aug. 13.
- William Blair & Co. for $677 million in active international equity, effective Sept. 22.
- Baillie Gifford Overseas for $655 million in active international equity, effective Sept. 15.
- Leading Edge Investment Advisors for $451 million as a manager of managers for a global equity strategy, effective Nov. 22.
- Four managers of global real estate public securities benchmarked to the FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Developed Unhedged index. They are Dimensional Fund Advisors for $355 million, effective Sept. 22; Heitman for $346 million, effective Aug.7; AEW Capital Management for $329 million, effective Sept. 12; and Brookfield Investment Management for $319, effective Aug. 15.
The governing board also approved a few adjustments in target asset allocations — raising private equity to 9% from 8% and lowering international equity to 15% from 16%. The other nine allocation targets remain unchanged.
The pension system posted a net return of -3.4% for the three months ended March 31 — its third quarter — and 2.6% for the nine months ended March 31. Full fiscal-year results will be made public in October.
