Iowa Public Employees' Retirement System, Des Moines, hired 10 managers to implement its $700 million notional value program in liquid absolute-return strategies, Karl Koch, chief investment officer, said in a statement.
The managers and their investment strategies are: AQR Capital Management for its managed futures strategy; Graham Capital Management, tactical trend strategy; Wadhwani Asset Management, Keynes leveraged quantitative strategy; Fort Investment Management, global contrarian strategy; Berenberg Asset Management, DyMACS volatility premium strategy; Informed Portfolio Management, systematic macro; Kaiser Trading Group, global diversified; P/E Investments, global foreign exchange strategy; Quantmetrics Capital Management, multistrategy; and Lynx Asset Management, systematic trend following.
The $28.2 billion IPERS plans to fund up to seven managers and use the remaining managers to form a “bench” of managers “reserved for possible future funding as needed for a manager replacement or possible program expansion,” Mr. Koch said.
Mr. Koch did not identify which managers will be funded and how much will be allocated to each manager. Each manager will run a separate account.
“IPERS will seek to negotiate contracts with all 10 managers,” Judy Akre, IPERS director of communications, said in an e-mail. “Only managers that receive funding will get paid.”
The hirings are subject to due diligence and contact negotiations.
IPERS could begin funding the managers in the third quarter of this year, Mr. Koch said. It plans to have the program function as an alpha overlay on its cash allocation. The move is the system's first in the area. An RFP was issued in February.
Separately, the pension fund removed a $500 million U.S. high-yield portfolio managed by Oaktree Capital Management from watch as a result of improved performance, Mr. Koch said. IPERS placed Oaktree on watch in 2013 for underperformance.
