Virginia Retirement System (VRS) in the US has allocated assets to emerging markets debt for the first time, with a $100m (€85.6m) mandate for a mixture of debt and equities to be managed by Ashmore Investment Management, the emerging markets specialist.

The assets will be invested with Ashmore's fund of funds, using the firm's full range of expertise in emerging markets in four underlying strategies: emerging market equity, dollar-denominated emerging debt, local currency emerging debt and emerging market special situations.