Firms & Funds

Illinois MRF bets big with Inflexion Private Equity

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private equity, Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund, private equity, pension fund, Abry Partners, Versant Ventures
The Chicago Cubs' Kerry Wood pitches in relief during the 6th inning of Game 2 of their MLB National League Division Series playoff baseball game against the Arizona Diamondbacks in Phoenix, October 4, 2007. REUTERS/Jeff Topping
  • Assets Under Management: $38.4 bln
  • Target allocation to alternatives: 7 pct
  • PE actual allocation: 2.3 pct
  • Contact: Dhvani Shah, chief investment officer: dshah@imrf.org

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund at its March meeting committed heavily to funds from Inflexion Private Equity, which target the lower mid-market in the U.K.

IMRF pledged £70 million ($92 million) to Inflexion’s Enterprise Fund V and Supplemental Fund V. It also committed £150 million ($197 million) to Inflexion Strategic Partners. It’s not clear how much those funds are targeting. No one from Inflexion returned requests for comment and a spokesperson for Illinois Municipal referred questions about the funds to Inflexion.

Inflexion was not the only fund to receive commitments from Illinois.

Other Board commitments include:

  • $100 million to Lightspeed Venture Partners’, an early-stage venture firm, Global Opportunity Fund. It’s not clear how much that fund is targeting;
  • $50 million to Vista Credit Partners Fund III, which is targeting up to $2 billion for investments in the software, data and technology market;
  • $10 million to True North Fund VI, focused on financial services, healthcare and consumer businesses in India on a $900 million target.

The system’s domestic and international private equity fund sits at 2.38 percent, as of Feb. 28, 2019, according to a monthly performance report. The system has a 7 percent allocation target to alternatives, for which private equity represents about 80 percent.