This research was motivated by our work with the private investment group of an international bank. The objective
is to construct fund-of-funds (FoF) that follow an absolute return strategy and meet the requirements imposed by
the Value-at-Risk (VaR) market risk measure. We propose the VaR-Black Litterman model which accounts for the VaR
and trading (diversification, buy-in threshold, liquidity, currency) requirements. The model takes the form of a probabilistic
integer, non-convex optimization problem. We develop a solution method to handle the computational tractability
issues of this problem. We first derive a deterministic reformulation of the probabilistic problem, which, depending on
the information on the probability distribution of the FoF return, is the equivalent or a close approximation of the original
problem. We then show that the continuous relaxation of the reformulated problem is a nonlinear and convex optimization
problem for a wide range of probability distributions. Finally, we use a specialized nonlinear branch-and-bound
algorithm which implements the new portfolio return branching rule to construct the optimal FoF. The practical relevance
of the model and solution method is shown by their use by the private investment group of a financial institution
for the construction of four FoFs that are now traded worldwide. The computational study attests that the proposed algorithmic
technique is very efficient, outperforming, in terms of both speed and robustness, three state-of-the-art alternative
solution methods and solvers.