Missouri Local Government Employees’ Retirement System, Jefferson City, hired Bridgewater Associates to run a $100 million portable alpha portfolio, said Brian Collett, chief investment officer, in an e-mail.
The $6 billion pension fund conducted an invitation-only search earlier this year following the board’s decision to move a portion of assets in its domestic large-cap equity portfolio to portable alpha.
That decision resulted in the terminations of Brown Advisory, which ran a domestic large-cap growth equity portfolio, and Brandywine Global Investment Management and Systematic Financial Management, which ran domestic large-cap value 130/30 equity portfolios. Each portfolio was approximately $100 million.
The rest of the assets are being held by transition manager Northern Trust until a second portable alpha manager is chosen in the fourth quarter, also an invitation-only search.
The pension fund also committed $30 million to Portfolio Advisors Real Estate Fund VI and $25 million to Noble Hospitality Fund III, a value-added real estate fund managed by Noble Investment Group.
Separately, the pension fund reported a return of 2.16% in the fiscal year ended June 30, 59 basis points above its policy benchmark.