Firms & Funds

Louisiana Employees’ commits $200 mln to private markets

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Louisiana State Employees’ Retirement System, private equity, pension fund
A reveler grabs a crawfish during a Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans on Feb. 15, 2015. REUTERS/Jonathan Bachman
  • Why is this important: LASERS has previous commitments with both selected managers
  • AUM: $11.5 bln
  • 13.6 pct allocation to private markets; 15 pct target
  • NEPC helped source commitments
  • Contact for a meeting: Tonja Normand, tnormand@lasersonline.org 

Louisiana State Employees’ Retirement System at its August meeting committed $200 million across two private markets investments.

The $11.5 billion pension committed $125 million to DoubleLine Mortgage Opportunities Fund and $75 million to GoldenTree Distressed Fund II.

Both investments will be included in LASERS’s private-markets asset class, which has a 13.6 percent actual allocation and a 15 percent target.

LASERS uses NEPC as its consultant on both traditional and alternative assets, spokeswoman Tonja Normand said.

Louisiana already has fixed-income investments with both managers, within its global multisector asset class.

It has $284 million committed to DoubleLine and $340 million to GoldenTree in global multisector fixed income, its quarterly investment report for the period ending June 30, 2018, shows.

At the meeting, the retirement system also renewed its contract with LSV Asset Management for a custom emerging-markets mandate worth $339 million.

LASERS also has a $238.8 million small-cap value mandate and a $415 million emerging-markets mandate with LSV, according to its quarterly investment report.

Action Item: See LASERS’s asset allocation here: https://bit.ly/2wrsWHj