By Anastasia Donde
When Cadogan Management executives planned to walk after their failed buyout attempt last October, one of the firm's investors, the Alaska Retirement Management Board, got wind of the potential changes and took a hard look. Alaska's $14 billion defined benefit pension plan had not been considering cutting any of the managers on its roster. But after a review, the pension plan ultimately decided to drop Cadogan, a fund of funds, on the grounds that the manager had underperformed.
Alaska says the move was part of a broader shake-up of its manager roster. Around the same time it started to reevaluate its investment in Cadogan, the retirement system hired two new funds of funds—the big London firm GAM and the well-known New York shop Prisma Capital Partners—to complement its existing stable of managers, which at the time comprised Crestline Investors, Mariner Partners and Cadogan. The pension plan is...