Oregon Investment Council, Tigard, committed $200 million to the AQR Style Premia long/short hedge fund strategy managed by AQR Capital Management and $500 million to an internally managed risk premia strategy, spokesman James Sinks said.
The council, which runs the $64.5 billion Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund, Salem, previously committed $100 million to AQR Delta Fund, a liquid hedge fund beta strategy. AQR manages around $1.1 billion in public equity for the pension fund and about $106 million in alternative investments.
Separately, the council is working on a set of investment beliefs, to be used as a broad outline in creating an investment policy. If the preliminary set of investment beliefs is adopted, it could lead to the council eventually switching to passive management from active management of its public markets portfolios and a possible boost to alternative investments. Currently, 75% of its public markets portfolios are actively managed, Mr. Sinks said.
The preliminary version of the council's investment beliefs includes a belief that “in public market asset classes, passive investment management is expected to outperform the median active manager.” The preliminary version also includes a separate belief that the council “should capitalize on its status as a true, long‐term investor by allocating a meaningful portion of (Oregon State Treasury and Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund) assets to illiquid, private market investments.”
