NISA Launches Quantitative Equity Extension Strategy with $250 million mandate from Teacher Retirement System of Texas

ST. LOUIS, May 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- NISA Investment Advisors, LLC ("NISA"), an independent, employee-owned investment advisor, today announced the launch of its Quantitative Equity Extension Strategy — a systematic, alpha-seeking equity capability designed for institutional investors. The Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS) has committed as the initial investor in the strategy. The active extension strategy complements the Quantitative Equity Market Neutral strategy, which went live in November 2025.

"Today's launch reflects a deliberate step in the evolution of NISA's offerings," said David Eichhorn, CEO of NISA. "We are seeing increasing demand from institutional investors for solutions that provide differentiated sources of excess return while maintaining a disciplined approach to risk — a fundamental element of NISA's DNA. I am delighted to have TRS as our initial investor. Their partnership reflects not only their stature as a world-class investment organization, but the character of their leadership."

The strategy is led by Mohan Balachandran, who began his early career at NISA and then spent 17 years at TRS building and overseeing their quantitative investment program. He rejoined NISA in 2025 along with Kyle Schmidt, Ryan Leary, Eddie Pluhar and Peter Ruymgaart. The team's experience — managing and stress-testing the process inside one of the country's largest public pension funds — shapes both the strategy's design and its institutional sensibility.

"We've built this strategy to seek to capture persistent structural inefficiencies across equity markets while maintaining beta and tracking error targets, offering institutional investors a scalable, risk-controlled source of equity alpha," said Mohan Balachandran, Head of Quantitative Equity at NISA. "We aim to deliver a consistent and repeatable source of excess returns across market environments."

The strategy is intended for public and corporate pension plans, endowments and other large asset owners seeking systematic equity strategies within a disciplined risk framework.

About NISA Investment Advisors, LLC

NISA Investment Advisors, LLC is an independent, 100% employee-owned registered investment advisor headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. The firm manages customized strategies for some of the largest institutional investors in the U.S. across three primary business lines: investment-grade fixed income, derivative overlay and direct indexing equity. As of March 31, 2026, NISA managed over $460 billion, with $295 billion in physical assets and $167 billion in derivative notional value.

For more information, visit www.nisa.com or connect on LinkedIn.

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