New York Teachers pledges $522 mln to PE in Q2, including co-investment fund

New York State Teachers’ Retirement System made commitments to nine private equity funds in the second quarter, according to documents released ahead of Wednesday’s July board meeting, totaling about $522.4 million.

Among the new commitments: up to $100 million to Amulet Capital Fund II; up to $75 million to CapStreet V; up to £23.1 million ($28.1 million) to Inflexion Enterprise Fund V; up to £50 million to Inflexion Supplemental Fund V; up to £75 million to Inflexion Strategic Capital Fund; up to $200 million to Pacific Equity Partners VI; up to $100 million to Tailwater Energy Fund IV; up to $400 million to The Maple Fund; and up to €150 million ($167.3 million) to the Seventh Cinven Fund.

The funds range in geography from the U.K., Europe, North America to Australia and New Zealand, and are in such industries as healthcare, oil and gas, and industrial and business services.

The Maple Fund is a separately-managed account dedicated to passive and direct co-investments from “a select subset of NYSTRS’s private equity managers,” according to a document posted on the fund’s website.

The pension also contributed $551.9 million to its existing partnerships in the second quarter and received $440 million in distributions, for a negative $111.9 million on a net cash basis.

NYSTRS’s private equity program had $22.7 billion in active commitments as of June 30, $8.9 billion in adjusted market value and $6.5 billion in unfunded commitments, with 239 active partnerships across 98 sponsors.

Since its inception and through Mar. 31, the portfolio has a net IRR of 12.4 percent. The best private equity returns have come in small and medium buyouts (16.1 percent), credit (22.3 percent), turnaround (19.5 percent) and large/mega buyouts (14.4 percent). The lowest-performing categories of private equity have been real estate (6.3 percent), growth/venture capital (7.9 percent), fund of funds (8.1 percent) and co-investments (8.2 percent).

NYSTRS’s private equity program lags behind the public markets in time-weighted performance, with the S&P 500 plus 5 percent as its benchmark. As of Mar. 31, its one-year return is 13.2 percent against a 14.5 percent benchmark; its three-year return is 15.7 percent to an 18.5 percent benchmark; its five-year return is 14.3 percent, to 15.9 percent; and its 10-year return is 14.6 percent, to 20.9 percent.

The portfolio’s 15-year return of 14.2 percent surpasses the 13.6 percent benchmark and its 20-year-return matched its 11 percent benchmark.

Action item: Read the July 31 meeting materials here.