CalSTRS Tries for Greater Disclosure

All but 10 of the general partners in the California State Teachers’ Retirement System’s (CalSTRS) $4.4 billion private equity portfolio have agreed to waive confidentiality agreements to allow the pension fund to disclose how their investments are performing.

CalSTRS will release an updated list of internal rates of return (IRRs) at the March 5 meeting of its investment committee in Sacramento during a semiannual performance review of its entire $92 billion investment portfolio that will make the performance data current through Sept. 30, 2002. The pension fund has so far disclosed fund performance data current through June 30, 2002. (See Private Equity Week 1/3/03, “CalSTRS Performance Data”.)

Although the Sacramento-based public pension fund disclosed IRRs for about 150 of its portfolio’s private equity funds during the last weeks of December, it is continuing to negotiate with the holdouts. Among the holdouts are Apax Partners, Austin Ventures and Mayfield. The pension fund’s goal is to disclose the performance of all the funds in its private equity portfolio, while maintaining good relationships with its general partners, says CalSTRS spokeswoman Sherry Reser.

CalSTRS’ decision to disclose the once-confidential performance data was prompted by a Public Records Act request filed by San Jose Mercury News in December.