Ohio PERS Welcomes Hedge Funds With Risk Parity RFP

Hedge funds are being asked to compete for the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System's new $450 million risk parity mandate.

The $73 billion public pension fund issued a request for proposals for the mandate yesterday. Interested managers have until the end of the month; OPERS plans to hire as many as five.

"OPERS may engage four to five investment managers with an allocation of $70 to $90 million each to manage using a risk parity approach," the pension wrote in the RFP. Hedge funds with at least $500 million in assets and a three-year track record are welcome to apply.

The possibility of hedge fund mandates in the risk-parity program follows OPERS' decision to invest an additional $3 billion in hedge funds by the end of this year.