St. Louis Employees' Retirement System hired EARNEST Partners and Wellington Management to run $35 million each in active domestic midcap equities, said Tara Murphy, client analyst at Marquette Associates, the $921 million pension fund's investment consultant.
The pension fund had issued separate RFPs in February and April for value and growth managers, respectively. EARNEST will run the value portfolio, and Wellington will run the growth portfolio, Ms. Murphy said.
She said domestic midcap equities is a new subasset class for the pension fund. Funding will come from rebalancing, and no managers will be terminated, Ms. Murphy said.
Other finalists in the value search were Cooke & Bieler, Kennedy Capital Management and NewSouth Capital Management.
Other finalists in the growth search were Congress Asset Management, D.F. Dent & Co., Kayne Anderson Rudnick and Mellon Investments.
As of Sept. 30, the pension fund's actual allocation to domestic equities was 40%.
Marquette Associates assisted with both searches.
