News and Analysis

California State Teachers? Retirement System?s board of directors last week eased its investment approval process for the purchase of secondary interests in private equity funds, thus opening the gates for a possible flood of capital into the secondary market. As private equity investors reach target allocations or liquidate their portfolios to cover losses in other […]

The venture capital industry has seen it all in the recent past enormous enthusiasm for “anything dot com”, highly leveraged management buyouts (MBO) and management buy-ins (MBI) and the rush to exploit emerging opportunities. Almost by definition the venture capital (VC) industry is a disciple of change. If an attitude of “steady as she goes” […]

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) is once again changing the way public pension funds do business. The fund, which manages $170 billion in assets, this month closed its $500 million CalPERS Corporate Partners Fund that was originally announced last June. The fund is a joint venture with Pacific Corporate Group (PCG), a fund […]

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) is once again changing the way public pension funds do business. The fund, which manages $170 billion in assets, this month closed its $500 million CalPERS Corporate Partners Fund that was originally announced last June. The fund is a joint initiative with Pacific Corporate Group (PCG), a fund […]

The California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) this month reportedly agreed to purchase a minority stake in The Carlyle Group Inc. as part of an agreement to invest up to $850 million with the Washington, D.C.-based private equity firm. In addition, the public pension fund also agreed to purchase a minority stake in Texas Pacific […]

The Washington State Investment Board this month preliminarily agreed to commit to two private equity funds that will make investments mainly in Europe. Fund managers at Apax Partners & Co. and HarbourVest Partners LLC met with and managed to woo the private market committee, which is a subset of the investment board, to the amount […]

After a long hiatus from private equity, the Florida State Board of Administration is taking steps toward getting its investment strategy underway this month by appointing Jim Treanor as portfolio manager and Mike Ireland as assistant portfolio manager. Prior to joining the pension vehicle, Treanor served as regional director of airport affairs at Northwest Airlines […]

Patrick Mitchell, chief investment officer at the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS), last month announced that he is resigning his post effective July 15 to seek other opportunities in investing. “A big imbalance between supply and demand as far as entities like CalSTRS looking for private equity” is one motivation Mitchell found to move […]

The Florida State Board of Administration’s alternative program, stunted by a period of internal restructuring (BUYOUTS Nov. 22, 1999, p. 4), intends to hire its first international private equity manager and fund of funds manager for a new alternative investments program in the next six to nine months. Additionally, the Board will continue to explore […]

Oregon State Treasury is betting big on technology buyouts. The $35 billion pension recently committed $100 million to Thomas Weisel Partners LLC and a total of $350 million to two Texas Pacific Group funds which will jointly target buyouts in the tech sector, among other sectors. Thomas Weisel has set a cap of more than […]