CalPERS committed $500 million to
“These significant returns are a credit to GI Partners and CalPERS investment professionals’ performance over the past 10 years,” Joseph Dear, CalPERS’s chief investment officer, said in a press release announcing the results. “We have a long investing horizon, and the fund’s success is testimony to our commitment to an investment strategy that seeks superior risk-adjusted returns across all asset classes.”
Although CalPERS categorizes GI Partners as a real estate manager, the Menlo Park, Calif.-based firm has diversified into underperforming assets and companies in a variety of fields. As Buyouts has previously reported, the firm acquired two dozen data centers after the dot-com and telecom busts, paying $250 million, or 70 percent of replacement cost. The firm earned nearly 4x after the holdings, rolled up as Digital Realty Trust, went public on the New York Stock Exchange and the firm exited in 2007.
CalPERS has continued to invest with GI Partners. The pension reported a 40.5 percent IRR, after fees, on its 2008 commitment to
GI Partners has won commitments as well from other big investors, including
GI Partners, whose current fund is 70 percent invested, is expected soon to begin fundraising for a fourth fund earmarked for North America, CalPERS said.