CalSTRS hires Meketa to advise on allocation targets

”Our new assignment with CalSTRS will involve us evaluating the private equity asset class in the context of their overall asset allocation policy,” the firm said through a spokesperson, in response to an email from Buyouts. The firm said it was selected after a competitive process involving “multiple national consultant firms.”

Among other tasks for CalSTRS, Meketa Investment Group will furnish research and analysis on investment committee projects, monitor and comment on CalSTRS’s strategic asset allocation, and participate in the pension fund’s triennial asset allocation study.

Meketa Investment Group joins Portland, Oregon-based PCA as a general consultant to CalSTRS, which manages a $180 billion retirement pool. PCA had been the sole general consultant to the investment committee. The consulting firm will not be involved in the evaluation of individual private equity funds. 

Late last year, the pension fund raised its private equity allocation target to 13 percent from 12 percent, while paring back its target for bonds.

Among its recent moves into private equity funds, CalSTRS pledged $250 million to Carlyle Group’s flagship Carlyle Partners VI LP; $200 million to Energy Capital Partners III and $200 million to Onex Partners IV LP, a $5 billion fund earmarked for upper-mid-market investments in North America.

An employee-owned firm, Meketa Investment Group serves a variety of institutional plan sponsors and private investors in discretionary and non-discretionary roles. Clients include Taft-Hartley funds, public funds, corporates and non-profits. The firm consults on more than $90 billion in assets for more than 90 clients with total aggregate institutional assets in excess of $600 billion.