The Swiss investment firm Credit Suisse will handle a new $230 million fund within the state pension fund that invests in North Carolina companies.
The fund was initially announced by State Treasurer Janet Cowell in December. The Treasurer's Office reduced the fund's figure from $250 million to $230 million to remain within a limit on "alternative investments," according to spokeswoman Melissa Waller. Those investments typically carry more risk but can generate larger returns.
Credit Suisse already manages other funds for the pension system and has 1,000 employees at its Research Triangle Park offices.
"North Carolina is a good investment," Cowell said in a prepared statement. "As we look globally for opportunities to achieve a high rate of return for our pensioners, we need to be diligent in looking into the possibilities that are in our own backyard." Equity funds are not typically established with a goal of promoting economic development, even when that purpose is secondary to getting a good return. But Cowell established the fund to make money and, as a "collateral objective," to help create jobs in the state. Her request for proposals from potential managers said the fund was authorized to commit to "investment opportunities with significant operations in North Carolina."
A news release Monday announcing Credit Suisse said the fund would "seek" to invest in North Carolina companies.
Cowell drew skeptical observations in December about what is sometimes called "social investing." The State Employees Association of North Carolina said the fund should focus on one goal: getting the best return.
Abrams speaks at Duke
A foreign policy expert and former adviser to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush will discuss "The Freedom Agenda and the Middle East," at Duke University today.
Elliott Abrams is a senior fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations. He was convicted in 1991of withholding information from Congress in the Iran-Contra Affair but was pardoned by President George H.W. Bush .
In 2002, Abrams was the senior director on the National Security Council for the Near East and North African affairs during Bush's first term.
At the start of the younger Bush's second term, he was promoted to deputy national security adviser for global democracy strategy, helping advance democracy abroad and U.S. policy in the Middle East.
In the Reagan administration, Abrams worked in the State Department, where he supervised U.S. participation in the United Nations and policy in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The speech at Duke is to begin at 5:30 p.m. in the Rhodes Conference Room (Room 223) in the Sanford School of Public Policy.
The talk is free and open to the public.
Sea-level rise forecast
Sea levels on the North Carolina coast will rise 15 to 55 inches over the next 90 years, a state science panel says.
In a report delivered to a legislative commission Monday, the state Coastal Resources Commission's science panel on coastal hazards recommended that planners and policymakers anticipate sea level rise of 39 inches by 2100.
"All of the historical tide gauge records over the last century and geological evidence over the last several centuries offer undisputable evidence that sea level has been steadily rising in North Carolina," the report said.
The science panel recommends installing new water-level gauges and reviewing the predictions at least every five years.
By staff writers Mark Johnson, Benjamin Niolet and Lynn Bonner
