Virginia Retirement System, Richmond, announced several manager hires and commitments totaling more than $1.3 billion at its Wednesday board meeting.
The hires and commitments were made in June, July and August.
The $53.1 billion pension fund hired Wells Capital Management to run $700 million in emerging markets equity.
The pension fund committed €141 million ($175.8 million) to private equity fund Nordic Capital VIII.
In infrastructure strategies, VRS officials announced a commitment of $300 million to IFM Global Infrastructure Fund, managed by Industry Funds Management, and $150 million to Global Infrastructure Partners Fund II.
Also, retirement system officials hired Mercer to help prepare an RFP for a record keeper for the defined contribution portion of a mandatory hybrid retirement plan for new employees starting on or after Jan. 1, 2014. The RFP should be ready by mid-October, and proposals will be due in mid-November, spokeswoman Jeanne Chenault said in an interview.
Separately, the retirement system announced it returned 1.4% for the fiscal year ended June 30. “Although the market did not produce the returns we had hoped for, our staff made the best of a difficult global market, taking advantage of every opportunity to protect the portfolio and add value,” VRS Board Chairman Diana F. Cantor said in a statement following the Wednesday meeting, adding the board “has redoubled its focus on the appropriate asset allocation and risk profile.”
The best performer for fiscal year 2012 was the real assets portfolio, which returned 11.9%, followed by private equity, 10.9%; and fixed income, 7.9%.
The worst performer was the $21.8 billion public equity portfolio, which returned -4.6%.
