The $84 billion New York City Retirement Systems will soon issue request for proposals for high-yield bond managers to handle about $4 billion for contracts that are set to expire in June 2003, according to BW sister publication Money Management Letter. One individual familiar with the plans said that the searches would be for managers to handle assets from all of the city's five retirement plans: The New York Employees Retirement System, The New York City Teachers' Retirement System, The New York City Police Pension, The New York City Fire Pension, Police & Fire Variable Funds and The New York City Board of Education Retirement. Horatio Sparkes, assistant comptroller for pensions, declined to comment on the situation.
The high-yield managers whose contracts are set to expire include Alliance Capital Management, handling some $682 million, Credit Suisse Asset Management, with approximately $995 million, Loomis Sayles, with $1.1 billion, T. Rowe Price Associates, with $203 million and W.R. Huff Asset Management with approximately $1 billion. Performance data on the managers was not available. The source could not speculate on when the searches would occur or on the likelihood of any of the managers being rehired. Elizabeth Smith, a public funds marketer at Alliance, said that the firm is not worried. "We were expecting this," she said. "This is something the city does every couple of years." Calls toEd Banks, portfolio manager at W.R. Huff, Richard Lindquist, head of high-yield at CSAM, and Mark Vaselkiv, portfolio manager at T. Rowe Price, were not immediately returned. Chris Lazzaro, spokesman for Loomis Sayles, declined to comment.