(February 1, 2010) — The Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association has terminated Blackrock’s $450 million Alpha Tilts mandate and Goldman Sachs Asset Management’s $240 million enhanced-index mandate, due to sub par performance and organizational changes.
Senior investment officer-equities June Kim told emii.com that Blackrock’s acquisition of Barclays Global Investors in 2009 could expose the fund to unnecessary risk and that the departures of Goldman Sachs’ Quantitative Investment Strategies Chairman Robert Litterman and co-CIO Robert Jones could deter the firm’s focus.
For the year ending November 30, BlackRock’s Alpha Tilts strategy returned 23.7% while Goldman Sachs’ Equity Enhanced Index strategy returned 23.6%. Their benchmark, the Standard & Poor’s 500 index, returned 25.4% for the same period, reported emii.com. According to the online publication, the cash from these mandates would go toward funding LACERA’s international equity portfolio.
The fund will additionally consider a $200 million investment in Analytic Investors’ 130/30 commingled fund.
To contact the <em>aiCIO</em> editor of this story: Paula Vasan at <a href='mailto:pvasan@assetinternational.com'>pvasan@assetinternational.com</a>; 646-308-2742