LP Scorecard: Washington sees more than $4 billion in distributions in 2014 from buyout funds; KKR plays big role

Last year was a good one for distributions for the Washington State Investment Board. In the twelve months, the pension realized a little over $4.0 billion in year-over-year distributions from its buyout portfolio.

KKR & Co. played a huge role in that success, as two of its funds led the way in both distribution percentage (distributions as a percent of contributed capital) and in absolute distributions. KKR E2 Investors LP was the leading fund in distribution percentage at 67.1 percent. Affinity Equity Partners followed very closely behind that at 65.7 percent with its third Asia Pacific fund. After a slight drop-off, coming in third by distribution percentage was Hellman & Friedman’s sixth flagship fund at 49.3 percent.

KKR dominated the absolute distribution list by winning, placing and showing. KKR European Fund III LP landed atop the board with its near $281.2 million in distributions during the year Coming in second was the KKR Millennium Fund LP. The 2002-vintage fund paid out $267.4 million to Washington last year. KKR’s Asian Fund came in third, returning about $228.0 million. It also placed fourth in distribution percentage (46 percent) and is the only fund to appear on both lists. The three funds combined to generate $776.5 million for the state in 2014.

As of December 31, 2014, WSIB’s private equity portfolio had over $41.5 billion in committed capital across 233 active funds. Those active investments have produced $37.3 billion in returns.