Louisiana Firefighters' Retirement System, Baton Rouge, hired Mellon Investments to run about $35 million in passive emerging markets equities.
The $2 billion pension fund's board approved the hiring at its Nov. 10 meeting, recently released meeting minutes show.
The board conducted a shortlist search after investment consultant NEPC recommended at its Oct. 13 to add a passive manager to its emerging markets equity portfolio in order to reduce active risk.
Funding comes from proportional reductions in the portfolios of active managers Acadian Asset Management and Invesco. In the Oct. 13 minutes, NEPC said that they were comfortable with both managers. The specific amounts of the reductions were not provided.
As of Oct. 31, Acadian Asset Management and Invesco's portfolios had $76 million and $30 million, respectively, in plan assets, giving the asset class an actual allocation of 5.4% compared to its target allocation of 7%.
NEPC assisted with the search.
Michael Becker, chief investment officer, could not be immediately reached for further information.
