Trustees of the $22.4 billion Illinois State Universities Retirement System, Champaign, voted to terminate a $188 million risk premia mandate managed by Lombard Odier Investment Managers during a March 9 meeting, a SURS news release said.
The assets of the fund will be used for general portfolio rebalancing purposes, confirmed Beth A. Spencer, the system's spokeswoman in an email.
The reason for the termination was not provided.
During SURS' investment committee meeting, the system's investment team previewed a new online Diverse Manager Portal.
The portal is designed to provide opportunities for diverse-owned investment management firms with greater than 51% ownership by minorities, women or people with a disability to schedule meetings with the SURS investment team, its manager-of-managers partners and its consultants, according to the news release.
The portal is "an enhancement to SURS' annual Diverse Manager Week," which the system has hosted for the past four years, said the release.
Via the portal, SURS intends to promote the visibility of diverse-owned money management companies across the country to "an audience of institutional-level asset allocators," the release said.
Allocators can schedule virtual and in-person meetings throughout the year with public equity, private equity, real assets and public and private equity firms. .
"I am very proud of the progress SURS has made expanding coverage and investments with diverse managers," said Doug Wesley, SURS' CIO, in the release.
"We view this portal as an opportunity to continue to improving our outreach efforts to gain access to a larger pool of investment talent," Mr. Wesley added.
As of June 30, 2022, 35 of SURS 87 investment managers are owned by minorities, women and people with a disability.
As of the same date, the diverse-owned money management firms managed a total of $9.3 billion, which was 40.9% of SURS' total investment portfolio.
