Louisiana Teachers’ mulls re-ups to Blackstone, Summit

  • Assets Under Management: $19.5 bln
  • PE allocation: 11 pct
  • Whom to contact: Lisa Honore at lisa.honore@trsl.org
  • Investment Adviser: Hamilton Lane
  • Why this is important: LP has committed almost a third of its pacing for fiscal 2019

Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana at its Feb. 7 meeting will consider re-ups to the latest funds from Blackstone Group and Summit Partners.

Blackstone’s eighth flagship fund targeting $20 billion will make 15 to 20 control investments of $50 million to $1 billion each. The fund will invest in large buyouts, carveouts and buy-and-builds; it will also seek opportunities arising from cyclical energy dislocations and Asia control opportunities.

Blackstone’s investments will be 60 percent focused on North America followed by Western Europe (25 percent) and Asia (15 percent).  It will target investments in financials, consumer/leisure, energy, industrials, healthcare, technology, media and telecom, among others.

Oregon Investment Council committed $500 million to Blackstone’s latest fund, Buyouts reported.

Louisiana Teachers’ committed $125 million to Blackstone’s seventh fund, which produced an internal rate of return of 18.52 percent as of June 30, 2018, pension documents said.

The pension has committed more than $452 million to various Blackstone funds. Commitments include $50 million to Blackstone’s second real estate special situations fund, $75 million to its second real estate debt strategies fund, $75 million to Blackstone’s debut energy fund and $100 million to its second energy fund.

The system also committed $12 million to its energy co-investment opportunity fund, $50 million each to Blackstone’s fourth and fifth Europe real estate funds and $50 million to Blackstone’s eighth real estate fund, pension documents said.

Summit’s 10th growth equity fund is targeting $4 billion, but it would likely be oversubscribed, according to Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System, which committed $150 million to the fund, Buyouts reported.

Meanwhile, Louisiana Teachers committed $75 million each to Summit’s eighth and ninth funds.

Summit Partners invests in technology, healthcare and life-sciences companies in North America. The company also invests in growth products and services including business services, financial services, consumer, industrial technology and other growth industries.

More than 140 Summit portfolio companies completed public equity offerings and more than 190 had been acquired by strategic or financial buyers, documents said.

Louisiana Teachers’s 2019 pacing target for private equity was between $150 million and $300 million, and the system had already committed $150 million to funds from TPG Partners, Thoma Bravo and Lindsay Goldberg, documents said.

Louisiana Teachers’ had a 10.7 percent allocation to buyouts compared to its target of 11 percent as of Sept. 30, 2018.

Action Item: Read more on TRSL’s portfolio here https://www.trsl.org/investments