Indiana Pledges To Three

The Indiana Public Employees’ Retirement Fund recently revealed commitments totaling more than $150 million made earlier this year to secondaries, infrastructure and Chinese private equity, according to a spokesman.

A $100 million commitment went to Lexington Capital Partners VII, a secondary fund earmarked mainly to acquire interests in U.S. partnerships. Lexington Partners plans to invest an average of $20 million to $60 million in each deal during an investment period expected to stretch from 2009 to 2012.

Dallas-based Panda Energy got a slug of $50 million for its Panda Power Generation Infrastructure Fund for investments in the power industry. In keeping with its affinity for energy investing, last year the state committed $50 million to White Deer Energy, earmarked for investments in mid-sized oil and gas exploration and production companies.

The $14.2 billion pension committed $1.6 million to JFM China Partnership II, a fund formed to acquire a stake in Chinese private equity firm Clarity China LP, which invests in companies that take advantage of the country’s rapidly growing consumer market.

One goal for Indiana’s private equity program, which is divided 65-35 U.S. versus non-U.S. funds, is to get closer to 50-50, said Terren Magid, executive director, in an interview with Buyouts earlier this year.

Indiana Public Employees’ looks at between 300 and 400 firms each year in conjunction with its consultant SIS in order to make 10 to 20 pledges. The limited partner has a private equity target allocation of 10 percent and an actual allocation of 6.6 percent, as of Sept. 30, 2009. Past pledges have gone to Ares Capital, Falcon Investment Advisors, New Mountain Capital, Silver Lake Partners, Towerbrook Capital Partners and Wayzata Investment Partners.

In other news, David Cooper was recently named chief investment officer for both the Indiana Public Employees’ Retirement Fund and the Indiana State Teachers’ Retirement Fund.