Alaska Retirement Management Board, Juneau, is conducting a shortlist search for its first investment in infrastructure, confirmed Gary Bader, chief investment officer.
The number of managers the pension fund is looking for and the amount of assets have not been determined, Mr. Bader said in a telephone interview.
Interested managers can contact Callan Associates, which is conducting the search.
Separately, the $17.6 billion defined benefit plan hired BlackRock to run $350 million in its MSCI ACWI ex-U.S. Investible Market index fund. Funding comes from last year's termination of Capital Guardian's $350 million emerging markets equity strategy. The funds were parked in the plan's short-term liquidity pool.
Also, the board approved amending the absolute-return policy to allow its managers to invest more opportunistically with higher volatility in an effort to boost returns. Crestline Investors, Prisma Capital Partners and GAM run a combined $575 million in absolute-return strategies.