Texas Employees Retirement System, Austin, which earlier this year committed $100 million to the Strive Emerging Markets Ex-China ETF, has liquidated its position in the fund.
Strive Asset Management, a firm co-founded by Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, said in a February news release announcing the launch of ETF that it was launched with a "Day 1 investment of $100 million from a leading institutional investor."
ERS committed $100 million to the fund in January, according to materials prepared for the ERS Board of Trustees' December meetings, which were provided to Pensions & Investments by an ERS spokesperson.
"This investment aligned with the Lone Star team's recent move to an ex-China benchmark in September 2022 and was found to be cost-effective relative to competing products," according to the board materials.
At the time the investment was made, Strive had $536 million in assets under management, which qualified it as an emerging manager under Texas law, according to the board materials.
"It was anticipated that this ETF would be reduced as the internal team increased its research coverage of emerging markets, and the position has since been liquidated," the board materials said.
Contacted earlier regarding a 13F holdings report ERS filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the quarter ended Sept. 30 that showed ERS had sharply reduced its investment in the ETF, which currently has about $68 million in assets, a Strive spokesperson said that as a general policy Strive doesn't comment on its discussions with clients.
As of Nov. 17, Strive had 11 ETFs totaling $1 billion in assets under management, she said.
