Baltimore Fire & Police commits $60 mln to PE

  • Why is this important: Board OKd recommendations from NEPC to allocate to four substrategies
  • Assets under management: $2.7 bln
  • PE portfolio: $186 mln
  • PE allocation vs target: 6.94 pct against 10 pct
  • Contact: Amy Baskerville, abaskerville@bcfpers.org

Baltimore Fire & Police Employees’ Retirement System at its March meeting approved $60 million to special situations and secondaries private equity managers, meeting minutes show.

The board approved recommendations from consultant NEPC to allocate funds into four substrategies, Baltimore’s director of communications, Amy Baskerville, told Buyouts.

Recommendations include:

  • $15 million to $18 million to one buyout fund;
  • $15 million to a special situation fund;
  • $15 million to $18 million to a secondaries fund;
  • $10 million to $15 million to a growth/venture fund

Details about specific funds were unavailable, Baskerville said.

Baltimore F&P has seen some activity in the PE space, adding 12 funds to its portfolio in the past three years.

In 2018, the system committed $16 million each to Vista Equity Partners’ seventh fund and to Nexus Capital Management’s second special-situations fund, Buyouts reported.

The board began committing directly to PE funds at the end of 2016/early 2017, Buyouts reported last year.

The system plans to make $80 million in PE commitments every year until 2022, with an increase to $100 million for 2023 and 2024 and $125 million for 2025 to 2027, per Buyouts.

Private equity allocation for Baltimore is at 6.94 percent on a 10 percent target.