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A Mississippi retirement system on Friday won a three-way fight to serve as lead plaintiff in a securities class action against Advance Auto Parts Inc. stemming from its $2 billion purchase of General Parts in 2011.

A Delaware federal judge said Friday that the Public Employees' Retirement System of Mississippi was best positioned to represent a class of investors, who have accused Advance Auto, its chief executive and chief financial officer of failing to disclose that the auto-parts retailer's acquisition of General Parts and subsidiary Carquest Auto Parts, along with increased competition, was damaging its business.

The ruling came over the objection of two other investors, who argued that the selection would violate the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act's prohibition against professional plaintiffs in securities class actions.

Attorneys for a New York retirement fund and the Teamsters Local 710 Pension Fund said in court documents that Mississippi PERS should be automatically barred from lead-plaintiff status because it had already led more than five securities class actions in the past three years.

But U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika of the District of Delaware ruled the so-called “5-in-3″ rule did not apply to institutional investors because of their access to resources and experience litigating the cases. Mississippi PERS, she noted, had a deep bench of in-house attorneys to help outside counsel manage the lawsuit and “significant funds” to spend on behalf of the class.

According to Noreika's opinion, Mississippi PERS has served as lead plaintiff in at least seven securities class actions in the past three years, recovering more than $3.5 billion for investors. The fund had also suffered the most financial harm out of the three competing plaintiffs, losing $2.1 million on the more than 31,000 Advance Auto shares it purchased between from November 2016 to August 2017.

“The court finds that Mississippi PERS's status as lead plaintiff in seven other securities class actions does not bar it—automatically or otherwise—from serving as lead plaintiff here,” Noreika wrote in a 13-page memorandum opinion.

“Having found that Mississippi PERS is not barred from serving as lead plaintiff on these grounds, the court finds that no party has rebutted the presumption in favor of Mississippi PERS as lead plaintiff.”

The ruling also granted Mississippi PERS's request for Radnor, Pennsylvania-based Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check and Wilmington's Rosenthal, Monhait & Goddess to serve as lead and local counsel.

An attorney for Mississippi PERS did not return a call Friday seeking comment on the ruling. Attorneys for the two other investors were not immediately available to comment.

The lawsuit alleges that Advance Auto, CEO Thomas R. Greco and CFO Thomas Okray for more than a year hid from investors that its acquisition of Carquest had caused “systemic inefficiencies and cannibalization of sales” at a time when the company was facing stiff competition.

According to the complaint, originally filed in February by investor Jewel Wigginton, Advanced Auto had reassured investors in 2016 that the deal had provided the company the opportunity to increase its distribution and further expand its foothold in North America. In the first two quarters of 2017, however, the Advance Auto reported declining store sales and free cash flow guidance, causing the company's stock to plunge to $87.08 per share from $140.66 per share on the day before the class period.

Advance Auto's press shop did not return a call Friday seeking comment on the litigation.

Mississippi PERS is represented by Naumon A. Amjed, Darren J. Check and Ryan T. Degnan of Kessler Topaz and P. Bradford deLeeuw of Rosenthal Monhait.

The company is represented by Douglas P. Baumstein and Susan L. Grace of White & Case in New York and Samuel A. Nolen and Katharine L. Mowery of Richards Layton & Finger in Wilmington.

Teamsters 710 was represented by Danielle S. Myers of Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd and Jeffrey M. Gorris and Christopher P. Quinn of Friedlander & Gorris. The other investor, Local 338 RWDSU/UFCW Retirement Fund, was represented by Ira M. Press, David A. Bishop and Thomas E. Elrod of Kirby Mcinerney and Peter B. Andrews, Craig J. Springer and David M. Sborz of Andrews & Springer.

The case, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, is captioned Wigginton v. Advance Auto Parts.