NPS shortlists fund of hedge fund GPs for $1 bln mandate; to pick final 2 firms in Q3

- BlackRock, Blackstone, Grosvenor & UBS are on the shortlist

- Hedge funds with big market share & established systems to be chosen preferentially

The National Pension Service (NPS) said on May 19 that four foreign firms were shortlisted for the mandate of a $1 billion hedge fund investment by the pension fund which is set to initiate investment in funds of hedge funds this year.

BlackRock Alternative Advisors, Blackstone Alternative Asset Management, Grosvenor Capital Management and UBS Hedge Fund Solutions are on the shortlist. The NPS will finally select two firms within the third quarter, after receiving requests for proposal and conducting due diligence study, the pension fund said in a statement.

The planned commitment of $1 billion in aggregate comes after the fund management committee of the world’s No. 5 pension fund gave a nod last year to the NPS’ plan to introduce hedge funds to the sub-assets of its alternative investments to diversify portfolios.

“NPS will preferentially choose global hedge funds with a large market share and established investment systems, and gradually increase investments going forward,” the fund said.