News and Analysis

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) has carved out a $75 million stake in a $250 million private equity fund that is to target Thai companies with pools of growth and expansion capital. The Thailand Equity Fund, co-sponsored by San Francisco-based Lombard Investments Inc. and the World Bank’s International Finance Corp. (IFC), will invest […]

The California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) last month evaluated its asset allocations and made some notable changes in favor of private equity. The $96 billion pension fund decided to increase its allocation to alternative assets to 8% from 4.9%. While some private equity fund raisers, particularly rookies, are having a tough time finding the […]

American River Ventures, one of a handful of new Sacramento, Calif.-based venture firms intent on financing a new generation of regional entrepreneurs, last week received a $10 million jump-start from the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS). CalPERS’ investment is the first institutional commitment toward the first-time fund’s $25 million fund-raising target. Once the firm […]

Despite the arrival of spring, there’s a dark cloud hovering over private equity firms that receive commitments from state pension funds. While upcoming changes to the Florida Retirement System could possibly give the group less to invest in alternative assets when they take effect next year, they also mark the start of a slow, steady […]

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 […]