Firms & Funds

LACERA pledges $270 mln to tech, venture

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LACERS, Los Angeles, private equity, pension fund, real estate
  • Assets Under Management: $56.8 bln
  • PE Allocation: 11.3 pct/10 pct target
  • Why this is Important: PE exceeded expectations, consistently hitting its benchmarks

Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association at its January meeting approved $270 million in commitments. The system also gave an update on a secondary sale of a chunk of its PE portfolio.

LACERA voted to commit up to $100 million to LAV Biosciences Fund V, which focuses on venture, growth and public equity in the biopharmaceuticals and medical-device sectors, mainly in China, with some in the U.S.

The pool had invested in LAV Biosciences’ fourth fund in 2017, with a $40 million commitment, Buyouts previously reported.

The board also approved re-upping with three funds spanning the software and technology sectors.

Commitments include:

  • $20.2 million to Union Square Ventures’ 2019 fund and USV Opportunity 2019, targeting $190.7 million and $238.2 million, respectively, per SEC filings. Documents also show that both funds reached their targets as of Dec. 28, 2018;
  • $200 million to Vista Equity Partners Fund VII, which focuses on software and technology, and;
  • $50 million to Storm Ventures Fund VI.

LACERA surpassed its target PE allocation of 10 percent, hitting 11.3 percent by the end of 2018, according to meeting minutes.

PE outperformed its 4 percent benchmarks for Q4, reaching 4.4 percent in returns. Year-to-date, private equity returned 8.6 percent, with a 7 percent target.

The system completed a piece of its secondary sale for $437 million, per the document, which does not disclose a date of the sale.