Virginia Retirement System, Richmond, with about $31.5 billion in investments, is planning to hike its exposure to long-short investing whenever opportunities present themselves.
VRS has $1.8 billion - or about 12% of its U.S. equity portfolio - invested in such strategies and would like to increase that amount to 20%, said Robert F. Hill Jr., director of equity.
The system uses Numeric Investors, First Quadrant, Symphony Asset Management, Martingale Asset Management and J.P. Morgan as its long-short managers, and is in the process of converting some of its $250 million portfolio with Aronson + Partners to a long-short style. The system also is planning to convert some of its $170 million with Investment Research Co. into a long-short portfolio.