Calstrs CIO tells CNBC that pension fund has long-term focus

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The California State Teachers' Retirement System's Chief Investment Officer Christopher J. Ailman said on CNBC on Monday that the public pension fund is focused on the long-term amid this "choppy seas" marketplace.

“The market is going to be choppy for a couple more weeks but the key is the U.S. economy is still in good shape," said Ailman.

The second-largest public pension fund, with over $191 billion in total assets, has "been looking at the emerging markets, but we’re worried about a hard landing in China so we’ve been holding off," Ailman said.

In the fiscal year ending in June, Calstrs reported that volatile markets drove the fund's return to 4.8 percent, below the actuarially assumed 7.5 percent return. By comparison, the nation’s largest public pension fund, the California Public Employees' Retirement System, or Calpers, ended the same fiscal year with a 2.4 percent return.

Ailman said it has been a tough investment environment for Calstrs since 2000, and that 2014 and 2015 were especially difficult years. But Calstrs is on track to meet its longer-term return goals and is focused on a 30-year horizon, he said.

(Reporting by Robin Respaut and Rory Carroll; Editing by Bernard Orr)

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