Ventura County seeks manager for $412m mandate

Ventura County Employees’ Retirement Association (VCERA) is searching for a private equity manager to help it reach its target allocation to private equity, including secondaries.

The pension fund is currently under-allocated to the asset class, having raised its allocation to 10 percent from 5 percent in December. This means VCERA currently needs to invest a total $412 million of its assets in private equity, a spokesman told Secondaries Investor.

The manager will work with VCERA’s chief investment officer to develop the pension’s globally diversified private equity portfolio, which may include primary and secondaries commitments, co-investments and private debt allocations, according to a Request For Information (RFI).

“Of importance to the plan would be to achieve the target allocation quickly while still maintaining prudent diversification within the private equity portfolio,” VCERA states in the RFI.

While the pension does not have a target allocation to secondaries, about 45 percent of its commitments are in secondaries funds, the spokesman said.

VCERA has committed to secondaries funds managed by HarbourVest Partners and Pantheon Ventures, as well as a fund of funds managed by Adams Street Partners, according to PEI Research and Analytics.

Candidate managers must have been in existence for at least 10 full years, must have at least five years of experience in providing separate account private equity programme management and must have at least $1 billion of committed capital in private equity separate accounts, in addition to other requirements.

Interested firms should provide a plan which outlines recommended allocations to various strategies including secondaries, as well as geographic regions.

The RFI is available on VCERA’s website and responses are due by 8 April.

VCERA was established in 1947 for employees of the County of Ventura in California and provides retirement benefit services to over 15,000 active and retired members.