Calpers to seek better terms from Apollo-report

CHICAGO, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Calpers, the biggest U.S. public pension fund, is expected to push for new terms with private equity firm Apollo Management [APOLO.UL], including lower management fees, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The California Public Employees' Retirement System, or Calpers, also may try to reduce the amounts it has committed to invest with Apollo and renegotiate other costs for at least some of the dozen Apollo funds where it has investments, the newspaper said in a report late on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Calpers and Apollo declined to comment.

The Journal said negotiations with Apollo are in the planning stages at Calpers and those plans could change.

Calpers serves about 1.6 million members including former state and city workers. It is changing the way it works with private equity funds, requiring them to disclose more information while overhauling they way they are paid.

Last month, Calpers, with roughly $200 billion in assets, said it was reviewing more than $50 million in fees paid by Apollo and others to a firm headed by a former Calpers board member. State Attorney General Jerry Brown has also launched a Calpers probe into the so-called placement agents who lobby for pension fund business.

As the financial crisis unfolded last year, Calpers lost $100 billion, more than a third of its value. Its reputation, founded on steady returns, pioneering new investments and policing public companies as an activist shareholder, was also badly tarnished.

(Reporting by Ben Klayman, editing by Alan Elsner)