Fund performance: Houston pension’s fund-of-funds strategy brings mixed results

Houston’s firefighters rely almost exclusively on a venture fund-of-funds strategy and not always with terrific results.

A pair of large Portfolio Advisors funds has delivered acceptable returns. Others investments have not.

The Houston Firefighters’ Relief & Retirement Fund has seven venture investments with vintages of 2005 to 2012, all of them funds of funds, according to a recent portfolio report.

The best performance has come from Portfolio Advisors Private Equity Fund VI and V, both billion dollar plus pools of capital. The vintage 2008 Fund VI had an IRR of 15.12 percent as of September, according to the report.

And close behind was 2007 Fund V, with an IRR of 11.1 percent.

A less impressive performance comes from two former funds from Credit Suisse’ customized fund group, now owned by Grosvenor Capital Management, according to the report. GCM Grosvenor PEOF II had an IRR of 7.5 percent in September while GCM Grosvenor PEOF I had an IRR of 3.3 percent.

The LP more recently bought into the 2012 Horsley Bridge X Venture

The seven funds are listed in the accompanying chart with commitments, distributions and IRRs.