Board authorizes $2.5 million rebalancing within hedge-fund sleeve

The City of Providence Board of Investment Commissioners on March 26 authorized Segal to redeem $2.5 million from Renaissance Institutional Equities and reallocate the proceeds to a more diversified hedge-fund manager, a move advisers said was intended to reduce portfolio volatility while preserving hedge-fund exposure.

Segaladvisor explained that Renaissance is a long-short equity manager with higher equity exposure and that the proposed partial redemption would reduce Renaissances weight in the hedge-fund sleeve from roughly 4.4% to 4.0% of the policy percentage. "The recommendation is just to move the 2.5 million out of Renaissance," the Segal advisor said, framing the action as routine risk management.

Chairwoman Sue Sullivan moved to approve Segal's recommendation; the motion was seconded and carried by voice vote. The board record shows the ayes prevailed and the authorization left the timing and mechanics of the transfer to Segal. The transcript alternately names BlackRock Quellos Strategic Partners and Longleaf as the receiving manager in different lines; the board's action delegated execution to Segal so the firm could settle the transfer at the appropriate time.

Board members did not request further debate during the recommendation and there were no recorded dissents. Segal said the change was intended to maintain exposure to hedge-fund strategies while reducing concentration in a single, higher-volatility manager.

Next steps: Segal will execute the partial redemption and reallocation at its discretion, and the board did not set additional conditions or require a subsequent approval vote.