SACRAMENTO, CA September 28, 2012 – The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) today announced that they will partner with the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) to host a workshop on December 3, 2012 for emerging managers seeking to become investment partners with the Pension Funds.
The workshop will provide prospective managers with an overview of CalPERS and CalSTRS emerging manager investment programs, insights into the organizational and structural attributes that are important factors in the Pension Fund’s assessment of promising emerging firms, and instructions on how to submit investment proposals. CalPERS and CalSTRS Chief Investment Officers, Joe Dear and Chris Ailman, will participate in the workshop.
“We have heard loud and clear from the emerging manager community that we can do a better job with our external outreach,” said Joe Dear. “As we’ve detailed in our Emerging Manager Five-Year Plan, we will increase our communication, marketing and networking with the emerging manager industry and this workshop is a continuation of our work to that end.”
CalPERS is a leader in providing opportunities to manage assets by seeking the broadest possible pool of talent from emerging managers. Following the global market collapse in 2009 emerging managers received 18 percent of the capital commitment to external managers for the CalPERS private equity program. This is the same level that was provided during the boom years before the market collapse.
In the last three years, CalPERS has committed approximately $1 billion to emerging manager strategies in the areas of private equity, global equity, hedge funds and real estate including the fund to be managed by Canyon Capital.
Currently, CalPERS has $9.7 billion invested with more than 300 emerging managers, representing more than 11 percent of externally managed capital.
The workshop is the first of four workshops that CalPERS has committed to as part of its plan. It will take place at CalPERS Headquarters from 8:00 a.m. — 1:00 p.m. in Sacramento, California. Registration details will be available on the CalPERS website soon.
CalPERS Emerging Manager Five-Year Plan can be found in its press room at www.calpers.ca.gov.
CalPERS is the nation’s largest public pension fund, with approximately $240 billion in assets. It administers retirement benefits for more than 1.6 million active and retired California State, public school, and local public agency employees and their families on behalf of more than 3,000 public employers; and health benefits for more than 1.3 million enrollees.
The California State Teachers’ Retirement System, with a portfolio valued at $150.6 billion as of June 30, 2012, is the largest teacher pension fund and second largest public pension fund in the United States. CalSTRS administers a hybrid retirement system, consisting of traditional defined benefit, cash balance and defined contribution plans, as well as disability and survivor benefits. CalSTRS serves California’s 856,000 public school educators and their families from the State’s 1,600 school districts, county offices of education and community college districts.