New Mexico Educational approves Deutsche settlement

The New Mexico Educational Retirement Board has reached a $1.8m settlement with the bank in its 2010 lawsuit against its former PE advisors.

The State of New Mexico Educational Retirement Board (ERB) unanimously voted at its 28 August meeting to approve a $1.8 million settlement with Deutsche Bank as part of an ongoing lawsuit, ERB general counsel Chris Bulman told Private Equity International.

The lawsuit, New Mexico Educational Retirement Board v. Renaissance Private Equity Partners et al., was initially filed in 2010 in the New Mexico state district court by ERB against its former PE advisory firm.

ERB sued the defendants, which included Deutsche Bank, Aldus Equity, Erasmus Capital and Thomas Henley, “seeking damages resulting from defendants’ wrongful acts and breaches of contract,” according to ERB’s litigation update on 8 August 2013.

ERB filed a lawsuit in part due to former Aldus Equity head Saul Meyer’s admission in court that Aldus had given ERB investment recommendations influenced by politically connected individuals in New Mexico, according to the 2013 update.

Bulman said the settlement with Deutsche Bank is subject to review by the New Mexico Attorney General’s office and final action by New Mexico state courts.

He did not provide any further comment on the litigation.

According to ERB’s second quarter investment report released on the same day of the settlement approval, the board approved a $40 million commitment to Edison Partners Fund VIII.

At the end of the second quarter, ERB allocated 9 percent of its portfolio to private equity, equivalent to $1.02 billion, short of its 11 percent target. As of 30 June, ERB managed $11.42 billion in assets.

In March ERB hired Top Tier as its private equity consultant.