Apollo, Fortress, Marathon, Golden Tree Hired to NYC’s Strategic Credit Mandate

The New York City Bureau of Asset Management, which oversees the $125 billion New York City Employees’ Retirement System (Nycers), has finalized the contracts with four managers it has hired to its new strategic credit mandate for the city pension system. The managers are the $159.2 billion, New York–based Apollo Global Management, $46.4 billion Fortress Investment Group, $10 billion Marathon Asset Management and $16.1 billion Golden Tree Asset Management. More contracts are expected to be finalized shortly.

阿波罗总裁马库·斯皮尔斯（Marc Spilker）上周在Apollo盈利呼吁上宣布，该公司已收到来自“一个大城市养老基金”的拨款6亿美元。有关养老基金随后被确认为纽约市养老金制度，由市议会办公室监督约翰刘。堡垒的投资为4亿美元。所有这些分配都是单独的帐户。在堡垒的情况下，该账户将与堡垒信用机会III基金一起投资，并将由公司的信用小组管理，由Co-Cios Peter Briger和Constantine“Dean”达克拉斯监督。马拉松获得了4亿美元的承诺。金树有3亿美元的任务，将以高收益率和最佳令人痛苦的想法投入。

这些战略信用承诺是从2008年雕刻的机会主义信贷拨款的建设。当时的意图是利用市场脱位所产生的机会。当时，养老金制度占其资产的1.5％ - 或约15亿美元 - 机会性信贷，并投​​资资金，然后由纽约为基础的131亿美元的大道资本集团和加利福尼亚州的1.77万亿美元的PIMCO，其中包括其他公司。因此，该基金能够利用抵押贷款支持证券和其他市场的投资机会，仍处于封闭式资金，意味着当机会结束时，他们无法获得资金并获得特定的资金目的通常不能作为市场搬迁 - 以及投资机会 - 改变。

After CIO Lawrence Schloss came on board, in January 2010, a new plan was put together that would invest sizable chunks of capital to credit managers that the Bureau of Asset Management and its advisers have judged to have expertise in a number of areas of the credit spectrum — such as Treasury bonds, distressed credit and asset-backed lending. The managers are then given license to invest wherever they see opportunity within their approved areas of expertise.

Last summer, four of the five pension funds that make up the New York City system — NYCERS, the New York City Fire Department Pension Fund, the New York City Police Pension Fund and the New York City Teacher’s Retirement system — all voted to approve the new strategic credit relationships and to increase the opportunistic credit allocation from 1.5 percent to 5 percent of the fund, or around $6 billion. (The New York City Board of Education Retirement System, the smallest fund in the system, did not vote in favor of the proposal.)

From an asset allocators’ standpoint, the advantage of the new credit program is that it enables the pension plan to be more nimble, or opportunistic. The Bureau does not have to go to the board every time they want to shift the credit portfolio and they also do not have to hire new managers to take advantages of different moments in the credit cycle or pull funding from managers where they see no opportunity. For managers there is obviously prestige and fees in such a large commitment. Although investing in such large amounts, and through separate accounts, can enable a fund like New York City to negotiate more attractive terms on fees.

The New York City fixed-income allocation also signifies an increasing awareness by public pension plans and other institutional investors of the range and diversity of credit strategies. No longer are pension plans just investing in Treasuries. Credit managers have shown they can be just as different — and in some cases just as risky — as their equity management counterparts. As a result, institutional investors are starting to look at more creative ways to invest in the asset class.

Fixed income is not the only area where the New York City Retirement System has been branching out. Three of the five pension plans — all except the teachers and the board of education — are also making their first foray into hedge funds. Last year they hired Permal Group, a fund-of-hedge-funds manager, to run a fund-of-hedge-funds mandate. This spring the plans made their first direct hedge fund investments, hiring New York–based hedge funds D.E. Shaw Group and Brigade Capital Management and London-based Brevan Howard Asset Management.