NETHERLANDS/US Europe’s largest pension fund the e150bn Heerlen based ABP scheme has formed an investment advisory group that is set to develop a fund-of-funds capability, under the first major deal of its Global Alliance joint venture with US investment manager State Street.

The new firm, SSARIS Advisors, to be based in Stamford, Connecticut, will provide absolute return strategies for institutional and private clients including corporate and government pension funds, banks, insurance companies, domestic and international corporations and non-profit entities.

The strategies will include hedged equity, hedged fixed income and global macro strategies of the G7 countries.
Additionally the firm says it will develop a fund-of-funds capability and expects to seek out and seed invest in new managers over time.

SSARIS has already bought up the assets of RXR Group, a quant asset manager with around $335m under management as at December 31 last year.
State Street Global Alliance, the joint venture with ABP for investment in nascent specialist asset managers, has taken a majority stake in SSARIS, while the former management team of RXR retain the remaining shares.

The consultancy firm intends to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission as an Investment Advisor and with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a commodity trading advisor.
Mark Rosenberg, former chairman and chief investment officer of RXR will assume the same role at SSARIS.

John Snow, chairman of State Street Global Alliance, comments:” We admire the tremendous track record of the SSARIS management team in developing specialized funds that have generated solid investor returns for more than 15 years, and look forward to collaborating with the firm’s management. Their unique expertise in combining non-correlated investment techniques to produce absolute returns in any economic environment adds a new and important depth to our mandate.”