Investment Management Weekly articles from February 2008

Investment Management Weekly archives from February 2008

NYS Common Fund Names CIO.
February 4, 2008... The New York State Common Retirement Fund has named Raudline Etienne CIO, replacing David Loglisci who resigned last year. Etienne joins the $154 billion fund from Rogerscasey where she was a managing director. The fund has also named...

City of Milwaukee ERS To Launch Asset Study.
February 4, 2008... Changes could be in store at the $5 billion City of Milwaukee Employees' Retirement System in the near future, as the board approved an asset/liability study last week, said Tom Rick, CIO at the plan. The results of the study should be...

Florida Plans Conduct Twin Consultant Searches.
February 4, 2008... Two of Pensacola's pension systems have launched searches for a new investment consultant, which does not bode well for incumbent Merrill Lynch Consulting Services. As first reported on imweekly.com (1/29/08), the $119.7 million City of...

Paradigm Makes Use of Technology in Small-Cap.(Company overview)
February 4, 2008... James Francis, president and CEO of Paradigm Asset Management, said he has good reason to expect the firm's new small-cap core strategy to rocket upward over the coming years. For one thing, he said the quant firm has actually taken technology...

CalSTRS Moves Towards Asset Targets.
February 4, 2008... As it aims to reach long-term asset allocation goals that were approved in 2006, the $180 billion California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS) will consider making changes to its portfolio at this month's investment committee meeting....

Global Equity Search On At Sonoma County.
February 4, 2008... The $2 billion Sonoma County Employees' Retirement Association (SCERA) has approved a search for a global equity manager, said Gary Bei, the California plan's administrator, as first reported on imweekly.com (1/29/08). Last year, the board...

Merced County Goes European.
February 4, 2008... The $452 million Merced County Employees' Retirement Association (MCERA) has hired European Investors to manage $7 million in global real estate, said Maria Arevalo, the California plan's administrator. Arevalo explained that the board was...

Fresno Systems Interview Int'l Firms.
February 4, 2008... The investment committee of the City of Fresno Retirement Systems (CFRS)-which oversees the portfolios of the $945.9 million Employees' Retirement System and the $1.04 billion Fire & Police Retirement System-interviewed potential international...

ACERA Nears Manager Hire.
February 4, 2008... The roughly $5 billion Alameda County Employees' Retirement Association (ACERA) has named finalists in its search for an emerging manager-of-managers firm. The search for a single manager to oversee an initial allocation of $50 million in...

Ohio BWC Makes Consultant Selection.
February 4, 2008... Mercer Investment Consulting has been retained by the $17.5 billion Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation (BWC), confirmed Keary McCarthy, spokesman for the fund. Mercer replaces Wilshire Associates, which had worked for the BWC since 2005...

Odds & Ends.
February 4, 2008... *Christopher Lane has joined BNP Paribas to fill the newly created position of head of the firm's global hedge fund relationship management team in the Americas. Prior to joining BNP Paribas, Lane was director of institutional sales in the...

Iran Off Limits to Colorado PERA?
February 4, 2008... Colorado's $41 billion Public Employees' Retirement Association (CoPERA) is again subject to the state's political whim-a year after the state's general assembly passed a law requiring the pension fund to divest its holdings in Sudan-affiliated...

California Comptroller Pushes For Board Diversity.
February 11, 2008... John Chiang, comptroller for the state of California, is pushing the $244.8 billion California Public Employees' Retirement System and the $173.7 billion California State Teachers' Retirement System to promote the inclusion of more women and...

California Regents Seek New Consultant.
February 11, 2008... The Board of Regents of the University of California has issued an RFP for a new general investment consultant. The Regents oversees $74.6 billion in endowments, retirement plan assets and other assets for the university. Trey Davis,...

Ohio Endowment Looks for Investment Pro.
February 11, 2008... The Ohio State University (OSU) is searching for its first-ever CIO to oversee a $2.3 billion endowment fund. Jim Lynch, spokesman for OSU, said that the Board of Trustees may consider making some changes to the asset mix when a new CIO is...

130/30 Strategies Set to Gain Traction: Interest from hedge funds is on the rise, but jury is still out on actual results.
February 11, 2008... Hedge funds are increasingly trying to attract assets from institutional investors, and in their quest to do so more funds are implementing 130/30 strategies, traditionally a long-only product, according to Investment Dealers' Digest, IMW's...

LA 911 May Up the Ante on Hedge Funds.
February 11, 2008... Last week, the Los Angeles Fire and Police Pension System (LAFPP) considered recommendations to conduct a hedge-fund-of-funds search, which would coincide with an increase to the plan's fund-of-hedge-funds allocation from 2% to 5%-or...

Iowa Plan Considers Equity Changes.
February 11, 2008... The $306 million Iowa State Board of Regents discussed the possible termination of Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM) last week, according to its Web site. Documents issued in anticipation of its meeting last Thursday indicated that...

New York Teachers Makes Hires.
February 11, 2008... The $105 billion New York State Teachers' Retirement System (NYSTRS) approved numerous new investments at its meeting at the end of last month, confirmed John Cardillo, spokesman for the plan. The board made commitments of $75 million to...

Taft-Hartley Fund Seeks Small-Cap.
February 11, 2008... Dahab Associates has issued an investment manager RFP on behalf of an unnamed, New York-based Taft-Hartley pension fund. According to the RFP, the approximately $90 million fund is looking for a small-cap value investment manager to oversee...

OCERS Interviews Manager Finalists.
February 11, 2008... The Orange County Employees' Retirement System (OCERS) was gearing up to interview four finalists in its search for absolute return hedge fund-of-funds managers last week, said Robert Kinsler, spokesman for the $8 billion plan, prior to the...

Northern Trust Adds to Sales Team.
February 11, 2008... Northern Trust Global Investments (NTGI) has boosted its public funds sales team with the hiring of Jane Thompson as a senior VP. Thompson will be responsible for the team's direct sales efforts in Illinois and the Midwest. This is a newly...

Odds & Ends.
February 11, 2008... *Jeffrey Peters has been named head of institutional distribution at Columbia Management, a role in which he will oversee institutional sales, client service and consultant relations. He joins Columbia from Putnam Investments where he ran the...

Corporate Funds May Show More Assets.
February 18, 2008... The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has approved a proposal that could change the transparency of investment strategies at corporate pension plans. The proposal would require funds to provide a more detailed description of...

NM PERA Moves Towards REIT Search.
February 18, 2008... The investment committee for the New Mexico Public Employees Retirement Association (NMPERA) approved a recommendation to conduct a search for REIT managers last week, said Dominic Garcia, deputy director of investments and interim investment...

Tennessee Plan Seeks Real Estate Consultant.
February 18, 2008... The State of Tennessee Treasury Department has issued an RFP for a real estate investment consultant to advise the Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System (TCRS). "TCRS' current real estate investment consultant contract expires on June...

Los Angeles Power Plan Discusses Two.
February 18, 2008... At its most recent meeting, the $8 billion Los Angeles Water and Power Employees' Retirement Plan was to discuss the fate of two equity managers, according to documents issued in anticipation of the meeting. Northpointe Capital was placed...

Swampscott Board May Replace Segal.
February 18, 2008... The Swampscott Contributory Retirement System has issued an RFP for an investment consultant, a measure which could potentially replace incumbent Segal Advisors, confirmed Richard DiPesa, the Massachusetts plan's director. DiPesa explained...

San Fran Approves Consultant RFP.
February 18, 2008... The San Francisco City and County Employees' Retirement System (SFERS) is gearing up to search for a new alternative investment consultant, said Clare Murphy, the $16.8 billion plan's executive director. Murphy explained that the contract...

Pa. Plan Names Search Finalists.
February 18, 2008... The City of Bethlehem Aggregated Pension Plan has narrowed its search for a domestic large-cap growth equity manager to oversee a $13 million mandate. According to an update on its consultants' Web site, the Bethlehem board has narrowed...

Sacramento Narrows Playing Field.
February 18, 2008... The $6.3 billion Sacramento County Employees' Retirement System (SCERS) was scheduled to wrap up two searches at its meeting last week. Turner Investment Partners, Wells Capital Management and Winslow Capital Management were interviewed by...

OCERS Chooses Two For Absolute Return.
February 18, 2008... The search for an absolute return manager is over at the Orange County Employees' Retirement System (OCERS), now that the California fund has hired BlackRock Alternate Advisors and Pacific Alternative Asset Management Company (PAAMCO) to...

Hedge Funds Seek Institutional Investor Dollars: But Changes Could Compromise Performance.
February 18, 2008... While the appetite for hedge funds has developed among plan sponsors in recent years, the secretive nature of the investments still prove to be too risky for some, leading SEI to recommend that the funds will need to change their approach if...

Odds & Ends.
February 18, 2008... *Carrie McCabe is launching a new hedge fund investment firm, Lasair Capital LLC, with the help of GE Asset Management. Her previous experience includes stints as the chief executive of Blackstone Alternative Asset Management and FRM Americas....

S&P Issues Pension Report Card.
February 25, 2008... State pension plans have bounced back from tough market conditions seen in past years, but this could change if market volatility continues, according to ratings agency Standard & Poor's. The upswing is attributed to attractive investment...

Fresno County Scrutinizes TCW.
February 25, 2008... The nearly $3 billion Fresno County Employees' Retirement Association (FCERA) discussed recommendations to replace Trust Company of the West (TCW) on its $119.7 million large-cap growth concentrated core account last week. The suggestion...

Idaho Endowment Fund Switches Gears.
February 25, 2008... The Idaho Endowment Fund Investment Board has shelved talks of a more sophisticated asset mix, said Larry Johnson, manager of investments at the $1.2 billion plan, as first reported on imweekly.com (2/19/08). "The board concluded that they...

The Physics of Investing: Thales Applies Science to Investment Style.
February 25, 2008... Some people have compared playing the stock market to horseracing, which would suggest that being a winner calls for either praying hard and often or studying the stock tables closely. Marek Fludzinski, founder and CEO of Thales Fund...

Mass. Plan Launches Search.
February 25, 2008... The City of Quincy Retirement System has hit the market for a firm to oversee $8 million to $10 million in an emerging markets startegy. According to the RFP issued by the fund, it is seeking an active firm for an account to be benchmarked...

CalPERS Beefs Up Consultant Pool.
February 25, 2008... The $244.8 billion California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) added two firms to its general pension consultant services spring-fed pool last week, said Clark McKinley, spokesman for the Sacramento-based plan. The investment...

Grand Canyon Fund Makes Hires.
February 25, 2008... The Arizona Public Safety Personnel Retirement System (PSPRS) is looking at adding specialist consultants for real estate and alternative investments to the plan's roster, said Jim Hacking, administrator of the Phoenix plan. The board...

Baltimore 911 Looks at PE.
February 25, 2008... The Baltimore Fire and Police Employees' Retirement System looked at adding a new alternative investment fund to its portfolio last week. According to the agenda for a Feb. 20 city Board of Estimates meeting, the plan was expected to...

Oklahoma Cops Narrows Search.
February 25, 2008... The Oklahoma Police Pension & Retirement System (OPPRS) recently met with two finalists in a search for a firm to fulfill a global fixed-income mandate at the plan. The board interviewed Loomis, Sayles & Company and Wellington Management...

New Investments Approved in NJ.
February 25, 2008... The New Jersey State Investment Council made a new commodities investment last week, said Tom Vincz, spokesman for the council. Vincz said that the council approved putting up to $500 million in commodity-linked notes. He said that the...

Insurer Finalizes Bond Search.
February 25, 2008... The $8 billion California Earthquake Authority (CEA) has wrapped up its search for new domestic fixed-income managers, said Tim Richison, the plan's CFO and acting CEO. The CEA is one of the world's largest providers of residential...

SamCERA Hires For Small-Cap.
February 25, 2008... The $2.2 billion San Mateo County Employees' Retirement Association (SamCERA) has hired Jennison Associates for a small-cap core equity mandate, pending contract negotiations. Documents on SamCERA's Web site indicate that the board will...

Odds & Ends.
February 25, 2008... *James Macmillan has been appointed as head of business development for North America at Gartmore, a newly created role. In this position, he will report to Angus Woolhouse, head of the global institutional market. *The $33 billion...

Asset Manager Hires Quant Pro.
February 25, 2008... Mark Wimer has joined Strategic Global Advisors (SGA) as a senior quantitative analyst and portfolio manager for its investment and research team. "It is not a replacement hire, but rather a needs-based hire due to company expansion and...

Atlanta Consultant Adds to Team.
February 25, 2008... Sere Rollins has been retained by Southeastern Advisory Services as a senior investment consultant, the firm announced last week. She joins from Veritas Consulting Group where she was a senior retirement consultant and helped develop and...