Chicago Fire Has $10M To $15M To Commit

The $1 billion Chicago Firemen’s Annuity and Benefit Fund is looking to commit $10 million to $15 million to private equity in the next 12 months, despite being at its target allocation to the asset class.

Areas of interest include domestic small to mid-market funds and global secondaries, said Chief Investment Officer Michael Moran.

The limited partner’s actual and target allocations to private equity both stand at 4 percent.

Last year, the plan sponsor pledged $7.5 million each to secondary funds managed by Goldman Sachs and Adams Street Partners. Goldman Sachs Vintage Fund V is earmarked to buy secondary interests for anywhere from $1 million to more than $1 billion, across all private equity strategies and geographies. Adams Street Partners Global Opportunities Secondary Fund II will be used to acquire interests in venture capital, buyout, mezzanine debt, restructuring, distressed debt and special situations funds.

The pension fund has also backed four BA Partners fund-of-funds vehicles. Chicago-based BA Partners is the mergers and acquisition division of Banc of America Securities. The pension fund has backed secondaries since early 2005, said Moran, when it pledged to BA Partners’s New Century Fund, one of the four BA funds of funds the LP has backed.