Iowa Public Employees' Retirement System, Des Moines, is searching for several managers to run absolute-return strategies.
The $45.3 billion pension fund is seeking proposals from managers of absolute-return strategies (or their excess returns) with "a long-term beta of less than 0.4 to global equity markets, global rate markets, global credit markets and commodity markets,” according to an RFP on its website.
The RFP noted this is Phase 1 of the search process, which primarily consists of the collection of quantitative and some qualitative information from potential managers. Phase 2 will consist of IPERS notifying potential managers for additional information and then selecting managers for Phase 3, which will consist of due diligence and award notifications, if the pension fund decides to select managers. The sizes of the investments have yet to be determined.
This is the second search conducted by IPERS for absolute-return managers in recent years.
The first was launched in December 2022, and at its Dec. 9 meeting the board approved investments in AQR Helix Strategy, a diversified trend following fund managed by AQR Capital Management; Brevan Howard Alpha Strategies Master Fund, a macro hedge fund managed by Brevan Howard Capital Management; Bracebridge Absolute Return Composite, an absolute return fixed income fund managed by Bracebridge Capital; multistrategy hedge fund Blackstone Strategic Opportunity Fund; and Navigator Fund, a multistrategy hedge fund managed by Davidson Kempner Capital Management.
The new RFP is available on IPERS' website.
Proposals are due at 4:30 p.m. CST on Feb. 21, and a Phase 2 invitation-only RFP is tentatively scheduled to be issued March 21. A timeline for selections has yet to be determined.
