New Hampshire Retirement System, Concord, hired BlackRock to manage about $210 million in passive international equities.
The $10.3 billion pension fund's independent investment committee approved the hiring at its Nov. 8 meeting, spokesman Marty Karlon said in an email.
The committee approved the investment in the BlackRock MSCI ACWI ex-U.S. index fund portfolio for rebalancing purposes, Mr. Karlon said.
"Utilizing a passive vehicle for rebalancing that closely tracks the policy benchmark will reduce the deviation of long-term performance for the overall non-U.S. equity asset class," Mr. Karlon said. "Additionally, the addition of a passive vehicle for rebalancing preserves the current active management allocations in the non-U.S. equity portfolio."
Funding for the new portfolio comes from a $150 million reduction in BlackRock's passive domestic large-cap equity portfolio, leaving it with about $1.7 billion, and $60 million from cash.
As of Sept. 30, the pension fund's actual allocations to domestic equities and international equities were 29% and 15.5%, respectively; their respective targets are 30% and 20%.
