New York State Common Retirement Fund, Albany, hired Aksia as a consultant for the $154.5 billion fund’s absolute-return portfolio for the next three years, said Robert Whalen, a spokesman for state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, the fund’s sole trustee. Aksia replaces Consulting Services Group. “The CSG contract is up in June, so we went through an RFP process to see what other opportunities existed in terms of consultancy services,” Mr. Whalen said. “We have an evolving strategy and we brought Aksia for this purpose, to give us some new options that they want to explore.”
Mr. Whalen said $5 billion is currently invested in absolute return, with a 5% target allocation.
