Tag: investment managers

New Jersey Bill, Now on Christie’s Desk, Would Expand Pay-to-Play Rules for Pension Investments

shaking hands

With all the drama surrounding New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s latest round of pension changes, one big pension-related development has been overlooked: on Monday, state lawmakers approved a bill that would expand pay-to-play rules as they relate to pension investments.

The bill, which would increase transparency around fees paid to private investment managers, was sent to Christie’s desk on Monday.

More from Philly.com:

[The bill] would expand restrictions on investments of state pension funds with outside money managers who donate to national political committees.

The legislation also would require the state Treasury Department to regularly publish reports disclosing fees paid to private managers who invest state pension funds.

Pay-to-play rules already prohibit the Division of Investment from awarding contracts to firms or investment managers who have donated to New Jersey political parties or campaigns in the preceding two years.

A 2010 federal law imposed a similar ban. Under that law, the Securities and Exchange Commission in June ordered Wayne-based TL Ventures Inc. to repay $250,000 in pension fees collected from Philadelphia and Pennsylvania after learning the firm’s founder had donated to Mayor Nutter and then-Gov. Tom Corbett.

But managers can still donate to national committees such as the Republican Governors Association or Democratic National Committee, which can spend money on and influence state politics. Legislation passed Monday by the Assembly on a 53-15 vote would close that loophole by extending the State Investment Council’s pay-to-play regulations to cover investors’ donations to national political committees.

The bill passed the Senate in October on a 25-8 vote, with seven abstentions.

Lawmakers believe the SEC pay-to-play rules are too lenient.

State pension officials, however, say the rules could harm the fund’s alternative investment portfolio; the fee disclosure requirement runs the risk of dissuading some investment managers from doing business with the fund.

Alternatives account for 28 percent of New Jersey’s pension investments.

 

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Chicago Treasurer: Investment Firms Overcharging Chicago Pensions By $50 Million

chicago

Chicago’s new Treasurer, Kurt Summers, said last week that he believes investment firms are overcharging the city’s pension funds to the tune of $50 million annually.

Summers says firms are levying higher fees on the city’s smaller pension funds than on the larger funds, for the same work.

From DNA Info:

Since taking office in December, Summers claims he’s discovered that investment managers are wringing upwards of $50 million a year in extra fees out of the city and Cook County’s 10 employee pension funds by charging substantially higher fees to the smaller pension funds for the exact same investments.

“I don’t begrudge any firm from making as much money as it can, that’s what they’re in the business to do,” Summers said in an interview last week. “It’s our fault for operating in silos and not looking at this sooner.”

Summers said when he came into office he found that just 23 firms are raking in half of the $142 million in fees the pension funds pay out to manage $35 billion in funds.

“Let’s go have 23 conversations,” Summers said. “Let’s start with the firms who have gotten plenty of their fair share.”

[…]

Summers plan is to aggregate pricing, similar to New York City’s system, and convince investment managers to offer the lowest fee to all the pension funds, not just the largest ones.

He said he’s already spoken with four firms and gotten a commitment from one to lower fees by a third.

Summers has previously advocated using pension money to make direct investments within Chicago.

 

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Canada Pension Buys Big Stake in San Francisco Office Tower

Golden Gate Bridge

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) is buying a major stake in a popular San Francisco office tower, the fund announced on Thursday.

The rest of the property is owned by Hudson Pacific Properties, Inc.

From Bloomberg:

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board agreed to pay about $219.2 million for part of a San Francisco office building where ride-sharing company Uber Technologies Inc. and mobile-payment provider Square Inc. have their headquarters.

The pension fund plans to buy the 45 percent stake in 1455 Market St. from Hudson Pacific Properties Inc., the companies said today in a statement. Los Angeles-based Hudson Pacific has owned the 22-story tower since December 2010 and will continue to oversee management and leasing.

The purchase is the Canadian pension’s first direct investment in San Francisco, where office rents have soared 88 percent in almost five years, according to Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. (JLL) Demand for office space has been buoyed by annual job growth of 3.6 percent in the city, outpacing the U.S. by one percentage point, the brokerage said in a report this week.

San Francisco is “one of the best-performing U.S. office markets and a key strategic market for CPPIB in that country,” Peter Ballon, head of real estate investments in the Americas for the pension, said in today’s statement.

The 1.03 million-square-foot (95,300-square-meter) property, formerly a Bank of America Corp. data center, was built in 1976 and has ground-floor retail.

Read the press release here.

 

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Kentucky Chamber of Commerce Calls For Audit of State Pension System

Kentucky flag

The Kentucky Chamber of Commerce is pushing for an audit of the Kentucky Retirement Systems – specifically, a review of its investment performance and policies.

Reported by the Courier-Journal:

Chamber President and CEO Dave Adkisson announced Thursday that the group wants a review of the investment performance and use of outside investment managers — among other issues — at Kentucky Retirement Systems, which has amassed more than $17 billion in unfunded liabilities.

While the state has made progress in addressing pensions, “serious problems persist that pose a significant threat to the state’s financial future,” Adkisson said. “The business community is concerned about the overall financial condition of our state.”

[State Auditor Adam] Edelen said in a statement Thursday that he shares the chamber’s concerns, but he also noted that at least three major reviews of KRS have occurred over the past few years.

[…]

KRS Executive Director Bill Thielen said officials will fully cooperate if Edelen decides to perform an audit. But also he pointed out that the system has been subject to continuous examinations, including audits, legislative reviews and a two-year investigation of investment managers by the federal Securities and Exchange Commission.

“None of those have turned up anything that is out-of-sorts,” he said. “A lot of the questions or concerns that the chamber seemingly raised have been answered numerous times.”

Thielen added that KRS doesn’t disclose the individual fees it pays managers because confidentiality helps officials negotiate lower rates.

State Auditor Adam Edelen said Thursday he hadn’t made a decision on whether to begin an audit of KRS. He said in a press release:

“For this proposed exam to add value and bring about real fixes to the system, it will require broad, bipartisan support and additional resources for our office to conduct the highly technical work…We have begun discussing the matter with stakeholders. No final decision has been made at this time.”

The founder of one retiree advocate group laid blame for the system’s underfunding on the state’s contributions, not investment policy, and was skeptical that the audit would yield fruitful results. Quoted in the Courier-Journal:

Jim Carroll, co-founder Kentucky Government Retirees, a pension watchdog group organized on Facebook, called the proposed audit a “red-herring” and argued that the financial problems in KERS non-hazardous are the result of year of employer underfunding.

He said KRS investments don’t yield the returns of some other systems because the low funding levels force them to invest defensively.

“I’m skeptical that anything useful would come out of another audit,” he said. “Not to say that there shouldn’t be more transparency, but that’s a separate issue.”

KRS’ largest sub-plan – KERS non-hazardous – is 21 percent funded.

London Mayor Wants Pension Funds to Invest In UK Infrastructure

Boris Johnson

London Mayor Boris Johnson wants to merge the country’s 39,000 public sector pension plans into one scheme, which would invest in building and updating the UK’s roads, airports, railroads and other infrastructure.

The Mayor says the plan would give pensioners great returns while improving the infrastructure of the country. From the Daily Mail:

A single fund could be used to create a ‘Citizen’s Wealth Fund’ to boost the economy and improve roads, rail and airport links.

Mr Johnson argued in the Daily Telegraph that incomes from tolls on new roads, passengers on new railways and airport charges would help create returns of up to 8 per cent for pensioners who invested with them.

He calculated local authority pension funds alone could hold assets of more than £180billion, while combining all public sector pensions would yield ‘hundreds of billions’.

Mr Johnson said: ‘There are more than 39,000 public sector pension funds in this country – each with its own trustees, managers and advisers and accountants. The waste is extraordinary.

‘Think of all those advisers and investment managers taking their fees – their little jaws wrapped blissfully around the giant polymammous udder of the state. Think of the duplication.

‘But it is worse than that – because this country is missing a huge opportunity, and one that is being exploited by more sensible governments around the world.’

Mr Johnson said: ‘The little pension funds will fight for their independence; they will make all sorts of spurious arguments about the need for “localism” in managing this dosh, when of course the advice is all subcontracted to the same legion of investment managers, and when what they really care about is their fees and their tickets to Wimbledon…and their golf-club bragging rights.

‘The vested interests must be ruthlessly overridden. It is time for Britain to have its own Citizens’ Wealth Fund, deploying our assets in a useful way, helping us to bolster pensioners and cut pointless public expenditure at the same time.’

Pension funds from other countries, such as Canada, have invested in British infrastructure already.

The Mayor originally proposed his plan in an op-ed yesterday in the Telegraph, which can be read here.

 

Photo By Andrew Parsons/ i-Images

Florida Pension Continues Search For Senior Fixed Income Manager

NOW HIRINGThe Florida State Board of Administration (SBA), the entity that manages investments for the Florida Retirement Systems, has re-posted a job listing looking for a senior portfolio manager to manage fixed income investments.

The SBA appears to have increased the top range of the position’s potential salary, from $140,000 to $180,000. The job pays, at minimum, $120,000. The listing reads:

Responsibilities

50%. Research and analysis of economic and market information to support the Internal Fixed Income investment process. Shape the interest rate view and contribute relative value ideas. This will involve, but not be limited to; analyzing written publications and conversing with economists and strategist regarding individual country or global economic conditions and prospects, researching, understanding and explaining the implications of economic projections on the current structure of internal portfolios, researching, analyzing and presenting relative value opportunities for internal portfolios and constructing, explaining and presenting trade ideas to capture relative value opportunities.

25%   Supervision of and backup for Portfolio Manager

10%.   Preparation for and participation in weekly group strategy meeting.

15%. Assist the Sr. Investment Officer-Fixed Income with special projects and perform other duties as delegated.

Qualifications

(Re-advertisement – Previous applicants will be considered and need not re-apply)

A bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university in computer science, MIS, accounting, finance, business, communication, public information, marketing, economics, mathematicis, statistics, or management and five years of related professional experience, three years of which must have been at a supervisory level or higher;

Or, a master’s degree or MBA from an accredited college or university and three years of related professional experience, two years of which must have been at a supervisory level or higher.

Professional related experience will substitute for the required college education.

Preference will be given to candidates with a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.

The application period closes on October 10.

View the listing by clicking here.

 

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New York Common Fund Gives $2 Billion to Goldman Sachs

Manhattan, New York

The New York State Common Retirement Fund announced today it plans to give $2 billion to Goldman Sachs Asset Management to invest in global equities.

Reported by Bloomberg:

It’s the first time the $180.7 billion fund has formed such a partnership, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, the pension’s sole trustee, said today in a statement. In addition to investing the funds with equity managers, the unit of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) will also provide advice across the pension’s remaining $98 billion equity portfolio.

“Identifying new opportunities is key to the continued growth of the fund’s long-term value,” DiNapoli said. It will give the pension “full access to world-class global equity investment opportunities and the nimbleness to take advantage of them on a timely basis.”

New York joins public pension funds including New Jersey, New York City and the Teacher Retirement System of Texas in making big allocations of capital to investment managers that can be deployed more quickly and across different strategies. Such separately managed accounts offer cheaper fees and more control for investors, who in turn agree to commit large sums for a decade or more.

[…]

Timothy O’Neill and Eric Lane, global co-heads of the investment management division at Goldman Sachs, said the partnership is a “landmark assignment” for the firm.

“We are excited to provide customized access to our broad open-architecture platform, due diligence expertise and portfolio construction capabilities,” they said jointly in the e-mailed statement from DiNapoli.

Thomas DiNapoli is New York State’s Comptroller, but he is also the sole trustee of the New York State Common Retirement Fund.