Fund performance: Fund-of-funds strategy less than spectacular for Ohio pension

The Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund is another LP with a venture fund-of-funds strategy, and results that have been less than spectacular.

The top four funds in the portfolio are funds of funds. Unfortunately only one of them has an IRR above 10 percent, and just barely. This survivor is Northgate Venture Partners II from 2004 with an IRR of 11.76 percent, according to a December 2014 portfolio report from the state pension.

A step down is another Northgate Capital fund, followed by two funds from HarbourVest Partners.

The Ohio money manager’s portfolio includes 11 venture funds with vintages of 2000 to the present, including seven funds-of-funds. More than half of the holdings date to the bubble years of 2000 and 2001, so performance can be expected to be soft.

Several are rather large pools of capital, the two HarbourVest funds and Horsley Bridge VII, in particular.

Northgate IV is in second place in the portfolio with an IRR of 8.03 percent as of December, the report shows. HarbourVest Partners VII Venture Fund is close on its heels with an IRR of 7.55 percent.

Northgate V from 2011 seems off to a pretty good start.

The accompanying table lists the 11 funds with their commitments, distributions and IRRs or multiples.