Annabelle Ju
Based in New York, Annabelle Ju covers North American institutional investors and fund regulation as the US Private Equity Reporter for Private Equity International and private funds management. She previously reported on market structure at Bloomberg and obtained her Master of Science degree from Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
The Orange County pension’s actual allocation to private equity was at just 5.47% in December.
The firm, one of a few in private equity making efforts to tap the defined contribution market, is doing away with the traditional 2/20 private equity fee model for DC retirement plans.
The Detroit-based firm had over $1bn in LP demand for this latest flagship fund.
The US and Canadian college and university endowments posted an average 4.5% net return in fiscal year 2016, the worst performance since 2009.
Goldman Sachs’s fund investments subject to the Volcker Rule stood at $6.5bn at the end of 2016, and the bank is still awaiting approval for its latest extension request.
The firm’s co-head of US buyout, Sandra Horbach, said LPs are showing strong preference for funds focused on ESG and other factors – prioritising this even over high returns.
The private equity behemoth is actively building channels to access the retail investor market, as 17% of its total capital raised now comes from retail and high-net-worth investors.
Harvard Management Company, which has 16.7% of its assets in private equity, is also cutting its staff headcount by half and shifting its strategy to become a generalist, rather than specialist, organisation.
.jpg?id=12885375048 "CalSTRS’ underserved programme hurts PE performance")
The private equity performance at the second-largest US public pension fund has lagged due to a specific mandate that targets niche, underserved sectors and areas in California.
The $107.5bn state pension’s private equity failed to outperform its benchmark for all six time periods observed as of 30 September.