CalPERS shopping for senior portfolio manager for co-investments

  • CalPERS adding fourth senior portfolio manager under Real Desrochers
  • Position currently held on interim basis by Scott Jacobsen
  • Co-investing chief to manage four staffers

The co-investing position fits the objectives of the 2011 strategic plan for the $277 billion retirement system, according to spokesman Joe DeAnda.

The co-investing chief will manage a portfolio manager and three investment officers. Three of those four positions have been filled, namely the portfolio manager and two of the investment officers.

The senior portfolio manager will report directly to Real Desrochers, who runs the system’s $31.2 billion private equity program. Desrochers has been focused on paring down the number of GPs and funds in the system to cut costs.

Since 2011, CalPERS has trimmed its private equity portfolio to 389 managers from 398, and cut its number of funds to 741 from 762.

CalPERS executive Scott Jacobsen is currently serving as senior portfolio manager for co-investments on an interim basis. Jacobsen is one of three senior portfolio managers already at CalPERS. He oversees the pension system’s underwriting activities.

CalPERS has reported commitments of $600 million to co-investments since the 2011 strategic plan came into play, according to a December report on its private equity program.

Since 1990, CalPERS has allocated $2.7 billion to co-investments and direct investments, earning it a net IRR of 12.8 percent and an investment multiple of 1.45x.

“Two major tenets of the strategic plan have been co-investments and separate accounts, both resulting in significant savings of $250 million from customized investment accounts and $130 million from co-investments (as of Sept 30, 2013),” CalPERS said in a December report.

CalPERS plans to make co-investments with “high quality GPs” in companies offering strong industry fundamentals and favorable deal dynamics. The pension system aims to continue to use the secondary market and co-investments to restructure and rebalance its portfolio.