Oklahoma Municipal Retirement Fund, Oklahoma City, hired WCM Investment Management, Investec Asset Management and Harding Loevner to run about $28 million each in active international equities for its $474 million defined benefit and $280 million 401(a) plans, pending successful contract negotiations, said Jodi Cox, executive director and CEO, in an e-mail.
WCM and Investec will run international growth equity and international core equity strategies, respectively, for the defined benefit plan. On the defined contribution side, WCM and Investec were also selected as international growth equity and international core equity managers, respectively, for the balanced fund and international investment fund options.
Harding Loevner will run an emerging markets equity strategy for the defined benefit and defined contribution plans.
Funding will come from Baring Asset Management’s active international growth equity strategy, which was terminated in August due to a restructuring of the international equity portfolio, said Jodi Cox, executive director and CEO, in an e-mail. Barings oversaw about $26 million in a separate account for OMRF’s defined benefit plan and about $7.5 million for its 401(a) defined contribution plan. Additional funding will come from passive international equity manager State Street Global Advisors. SSgA ran about $50 million total for the defined benefit and defined contribution plans. The decision to terminate State Street from its passive international equity allocation was related to the board’s decision, as part of the restructuring, to move into active management for international equities; it was not related to performance, Ms. Cox wrote.
