Oregon Scheme Selects Russell for US Index Mandate

(August 16, 2011) — The $60 billion Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund has chosen Russell for its new internally managed $500 million US equity investment mandate.

The institutional mandate for Russell follows a $640 million mandate for its Fundamental Index by the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation.

“Overall, we feel this new approach offers us the best of both worlds. We gain the increased efficiency and consistency an index strategy can potentially provide yet also benefit from a more fundamental investment approach,” Mike Viteri, Senior Investment Officer for Public Equities at the Oregon State Treasury, said in a statement. The mandate, which is expected to fund by September 30, will draw from a combination of existing domestic actively managed and passively indexed US large cap portfolios.

Strategic Investment Solutions acted as investment consultant to the Oregon Investment Council, which manages the Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund.

Rolf Agather, managing director for index research and development at Russell Investments, added: “The selection of our newly launched Russell Fundamental U.S. Large Company Index by Oregon signals that investors are seeking a more active approach to potentially realize much sought-after alternative beta exposures, along with the transparency, objectivity and broad diversification they have come to expect from the Russell Index family.”

According to a release from the consulting firm, Russell Investments and Research Affiliates launched the index series in February on Research Affiliates’ Fundamental Index methodology, which selects and weights constituents by company size, as opposed to market capitalization.