Alaska Permanent sets $750 mln account with Apollo

  • Separate account under Apollo’s external CIO program
  • Strategic partnership will invest in private credit
  • Move follows similar action with Carlyle Group

Alaska Permanent Fund will form a strategic partnership with Apollo under the firm’s private market external chief investment officer program. The partnership will invest in private credit though funds and direct investments, through varying structures, according to a statement from Alaska.

Alaska Permanent Fund also said it allocated $800 million to private equity, including up to $200 million in co-investments. The fund did not disclose the names of any of the specific funds.

All told, Alaska said its private equity portfolio now tips the scales at $2.3 billion.

“It has been ten years since the Permanent Fund was first invested in private equity as a way to increase the diversification of its investments,” Bill Moran, board chairman, said in a prepared statement. ”We have been pleased with the success of this program and have added other private asset portfolios over the years, each providing different risk and return advantages.”

The board compared the Apollo program to its 2013 initiative with the Carlyle Group. That program drew up to $375 million for primary investments in up to three Carlyle private equity funds including Carlyle International Energy Partners LP and NGP Natural Resources XI LP. A separate $375 million was set aside for pre-funding direct and other Carlyle investments, with a focus on natural resources, metals and energy.

Apollo declined to comment.

Separately, the Alaska Permanent Fund allocated up to $100 million to private credit investments to three managers: the mezzanine units of Oaktree Capital Management and Audax Group, as well as Crestline Investors Inc. Those three managers oversee about $1.2 billion.

Alaska Permanent Fund also allocated $400 million to infrastructure investments, including $200 million for co-investments. All told, the fund now manages $1.3 billion in infrastructure investments.

The fund also allocated $100 million to Arch Ventures VIII, a venture capital fund founded out of the Argonne National Laboratory and “one of the strongest in commercializing and licensing technologies from universities and national laboratories.”