CalPERS has extended the mandates of its external global equities managers by one year to enable staff to complete the asset class review, which will produce a recommendation about the role of external managers in the portfolio.
Institutional investors have taken their feet off the gas, with the latest data from State Street Global Markets showing a “neutral” reading for cross-border flows and consensus views on global markets.
CalPERS has expanded the scope of services required by its primary pension consultant, including the provision of more strategic advice and better communication between board and staff, as part of an RFP for a general consultant to be released in December. The contract with Wilshire Associates, the fund’s consultant since 1983, is due to expire in June next year.
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The chief executive of the C$117 billion ($111 billion) Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, David Denison, has urged the Canadian government to keep pace with the privatisation of assets in other jurisdictions such as the UK, Australia and to some extent the US, as it looks to increase beyond the combined $16.1 billion already invested in real estate and infrastructure.
The $32 billion Maryland State Retirement System is searching for advisers in real estate and private equity, as it moves toward its strategic asset allocation target that sits signficantly distant from its actual investments at the end of September, requiring a quadrupling of its private equity investments and new allocations to real return assets.
Just because the BlackRock/Barclays Global Investors merger will create a global funds management behemoth – with $3 trillion under management and 9,000 employees in 24 countries – does not mean alpha will come more cheaply. Amanda White spoke to vice chair of BlackRock, Robert Fairbairn, about what the merger means for products, clients and the industry at large, as part of an investigation into the role of the mega manager.