LP Scorecard: Blackstone 2008 vintage jumps highest for CalSTRs

The top four increases are accounted for by funds of 2008 vintage. Blackstone Capital Partners VI LP shows the biggest leap in terms of IRR, recording a 33.8 percentage-point increase to a positive 10.40 percent IRR this year from a negative IRR of -23.48 percent in the same period last year.

In second place was Advent Central & Eastern Europe IV, LP, which jumped 15.83 percentage points to an IRR of -9.90 percent in March from a negative IRR of -25.73 a year ago.

A UK mid-market buyout fund takes third place. ECI 9 A LP, which is almost out of negative IRR territory, was up 15.67 percentage points to -0.74 percent in March from -16.41 percent a year ago.

Also posting an impressive performance is the Asia-focused CVC Capital Partners Asia Pacific III LP, in fourth place with a rise of 14.50 percentage points to 16.71 percent in March from 2.21 percent in March 2012.

Bain Capital Coinvest Fund X LP takes fifth place in the scorecard, jumping 10.62 percentage points to climb out of negative territory. The fund had an IRR of 0.47 percent in March, up from -10.15 percent.

At the other end of the spectrum, those buyouts funds that witnessed a decrease in year-on-year IRR included the 2007 EnCap Energy Capital Fund VII LP, which was down 4.23 percentage points at 20.32 percent from 24.55 percent; the 2008 vintage Riverstone/Carlyle Renew & Alt Energy II, down 3.73 percentage points at 9.1 percent from 12.83 percent; and the 2005 Summit Partners Private Equity VII-A LP, down 3.33 percentage points to 4.60 percent from 7.93 percent.

CalSTRS is invested in 268 private equity and venture capital vehicles of which some 218 are buyout related. The pension fund recently boosted the amount of money it plans to invest in private equity by 1 percentage point, to 13 percent of its overall portfolio, according to a news release. Private equity currently represents 12.8 percent, or $21.8 billion, of CalSTRS’ overall portfolio. The addition of $1.7 billion to the target allocation represents an increase of 8 percent over the pension’s current target, according to Buyouts.

See the accompanying table which includes the twenty CalSTRS buyout funds that had the highest percentage point increase year-on-year in terms of IRR.