Fairfax County (Va.) Uniformed Retirement System hired Advisory Research to run $60 million in small-cap value equities, said Laurnz Swartz, executive director of the Fairfax County Retirement Administration Agency, which oversees the $1.1 billion system. Funding comes from terminating J.L. Kaplan & Associates, which ran a similar-style portfolio, because of management changes at Kaplan, Mr. Swartz said.
The system also committed $22 million to the Starboard Value and Opportunity Fund, an activist hedge fund run by Ramius Capital Group. Funding will come from reducing the fund’s BGI Alpha Tilts investment to $150 million, Mr. Swartz said. The move was part of a “strategic allocation decision,” Mr. Swartz said.
In addition, the $932 million Fairfax County Police Officers Retirement System, also overseen by the Retirement Administration Agency, hired ClariVest Asset Management to run $36 million in active smidcap growth equities, Mr. Swartz said. AQR Capital Management also was hired to run $36 million in a 130/30 small-cap core equity strategy, and $20 million was committed to Ramius’ Starboard Value and Opportunity Fund. Funding for the new allocations came from terminating two $46 million accounts: a small-cap growth portfolio run by Veredus Asset Management and a small-cap value account run by Systematic Financial Management, Mr. Swartz said. “This is designed to produce better performance and to diversify,” Mr. Swartz said.
Neither Karen Kohler, Systematic chief operating officer, nor Charles Mercer, a portfolio manager for Veredus, could be reached by press time for comment.
New England Pension Consultants did the invitation-only searches for the uniformed system, and Mercer did the invitation-only searches for the police system.
