LP Scorecard: Newbridge Asia leads way for CalPERS in cash-on-cash return

Unrealized gains are all fine and well but when it comes to brass tacks what investors really care about is the cash-on-cash return of their investments.

In this edition’s scorecard we rank funds in the California Public Employees’ Retirement System portfolio by cash-on-cash return as of March 31 and present the results in the accompanying table.

The 2003-vintage Newbridge Asia III LP takes the crown, having generated a 4.4x cash-on-cash investment multiple, or a 337.3 percent gain. That is followed by the vintage-2002 Advent Global Private Equity IV-A LP, which produced a 3.2x cash-on-cash investment multiple (218.6 percent gain) and the vintage-2001 T3 Partners II LP, which produced a 3.0x cash-on-cash investment multiple (201.8 percent).

All told as of March 31, CalPERS had committed $56.0 billion to 289 active funds in its private equity portfolio. Of that tally, sponsors had drawn down $46.2 billion, returned $39.3 billion and valued the remaining holdings at $30.9 billion.

In the first quarter, CalPERS received an estimated $1.65 billion in distributions, an impressive figure given it represents more than 5 percent of that $30.9 billion portfolio.