As the largest public pension fund in the US, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System has picked Standard Life Investments as the first of four external managers who will work on the programme.
The Scottish firm will run its $500m mandate following the investment approach of its incredibly successful £16bn Global Absolute Return Strategies Fund in the UK retail space.
The aim of Calpers’ multi-asset class partners programme is to outperform the Calpers total fund over a market cycle and doing so with lower volatility and less risk.
A secondary aim is the transfer of information between the teams.
Sweet spot
The GARS approach is based on the belief that marginal investors have a short-term time horizon and that by takig a three-year market view inefficiencies can be taken advantage of.
Keith Skeoch, CEO of Standard Life Investments said the relationship presented an opportunity for SLI to work closely with the Calpers investment team.
SLI opened an office in Boston in April 2002 and now has a 55-strong team there comprised of US and global equity analysts, a fixed income team and sales and distribution positions.
Tam McVie, investment director at SLI, is now based in Boston and spends a great deal of his time promoting the GARS offering in the US.
