Alaska Permanent Fund Corp., Juneau, has chosen Russell Fundamental Developed Large Company index as the benchmark for a $640 million quasi-passive global equities mandate, confirmed Maria Tsu, director of investments for equity strategies and infrastructure for the $40.8 billion fund.
State Street Global Advisors will continue to serve as manager of the strategy, Ms. Tsu said in a telephone interview.
Previously, a cap-weighted MSCI World index was the benchmark, Ms. Tsu said.
“We've moved our public equity portfolio to a three-component structure,” she said. “We continue to be 55% in active strategies with the balance split between traditional cap-weighted passive and what we call quasi-passive.”
She said the three-pronged approach was first approved in February 2010.
The fundamental measures used for the index are a company's adjusted sales, retained cash flow and average dividends paid plus share buybacks, according to a Russell news release.
Russell spokesman Tim Benedict could not immediately be reached for comment.
