El Paso retirement trust reports $1.15 billion in assets after strong April rebound; managers cite exceptional returns

April Shammy, from the office of the controller, told trustees the trust's statement of net assets "reflects total cash and investments of approximately 1,150,000,000," with net assets available for benefits of about $1,154,000,000 and receivables roughly $2,500,000. "For April 2026, net investment income was approximately 112,700,000," she said, and the cumulative rate of return stood at 10.18%, well above the cumulative target of 4.83% and the annual target of 7.25%.

The board also heard reintroductions and strategy updates from two outside managers. Colleen Feblowitz, director of relationship management at AeroStreet, said the trust's international equity allocation has produced exceptional performance for the account, reporting that the strategy has delivered an annualized return of about 7.8% net over the firm's relationship with the fund and that the board's position in the strategy has returned roughly 40.9% for the past 12 months, translating to a net value add in the strategy of about 15.6% versus an expected target near 2.2%.

"We have had a strong track record over the period you've been invested," Feblowitz said, and described the firm's sector and country positioning, noting a near 10% information-technology sector overweight and a roughly 7% overweight to China versus the benchmark.

Alex Ford, presenting the consultant's quarterly update, framed the performance against a shifting macroeconomic backdrop. He said the war in Iran and related energy pressures contributed to headline inflation around 3.8% and pushed long-term yields higher (the 30-year U.S. Treasury recently exceeded 5%). Ford said those forces produced volatility but that April delivered a robust recovery: "April produced roughly $62,000,000 in unrealized gains," he said, which recovered about $50,000,000 of March losses and pushed the plan value to about $1.15 billion on a preliminary basis.

Ford highlighted asset-class and manager-level results: domestic equity was up more than 31% over the trailing year; the Wellington small/mid-cap manager returned nearly 36% (short of a 40% benchmark), while the international manager discussed earlier generated returns in excess of 50% for the year in the consultant's presentation. He and trustees discussed that private-equity benchmarking changes that took effect Sept. 1 affect year-over-year comparisons and can mute private-equity performance versus public-market benchmarks.

Trustees asked about capacity constraints, manager openings and possible new hires. Feblowitz said AeroStreet's international strategy has been closed to new investments since 2023 as part of capacity management; trustees and consultants agreed to have Callan (the plan's consultant) explore whether to add another international manager and to monitor domestic-manager opportunities, possibly next year.

Votes at a glance: the board approved the consent agenda at the start of the meeting (motion recorded in the transcript as made by Renee Pena and seconded by Representative Fierro; trustees polled and the motion passed) and later approved a motion to adjourn. No substantive policy motions or ordinances were voted on during the session.

The meeting closed after brief administrative announcements; no members of the public signed up to comment.