Texas Employees Retirement System, Austin, hired Albourne America as the $23 billion system’s first hedge fund consultant.
The hiring was approved Tuesday at a joint meeting of the system’s board and investment committee.
In August 2008, system trustees approved a 5% allocation to hedge funds, $1.2 billion in current dollars, but the hedge fund program was put on hold because of the financial crisis that hit later that year, Mary Jane Wardlow, spokeswoman, wrote in an e-mail.
The fund has an initial investment target of 1% or $230 million to hedge funds.
Texas ERS staff and Albourne America will create a tactical plan for hedge fund investment that will be presented to the investment committee and the board for approval later this year, Ms. Wardlow wrote. The system’s first hedge fund investments likely will happen in the first part of 2012.
The system is searching for an internal hedge fund portfolio manager who will be responsible for the development, implementation and management of the hedge fund program. The role includes the identification, evaluation, due diligence and execution of limited partnership investments with hedge funds, according to a job listing on the fund’s website: www.ers.state.tx.us/About_ERS/Careers/Job_Postings/724-Hedge_Fund_Portfolio_Manager.
