NYS Common ushers in new relationships with Crestview, Reverence Capital

The $207 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund committed $200 million to Crestview Partners in September, adding a new manager to its roster of private equity partners.

The fund, managed by State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, committed to Crestview Partners IV, which focuses on North American middle-market businesses within its core sector verticals.

Crestview is a new relationship for CRF. Fund IV reportedly is targeting $3.5 billion or more for its fourth fund, Buyouts reported. The commitment closed Sept. 4, 2018, the comptroller’s office said.

The state pension also committed to its emerging-manager program, which invests with newer, smaller and diverse investment-management firms through direct fund commitments and through emerging manager funds-of-funds.

The state committed $25 million to Reverence Capital Partners Opportunities Fund II through Pioneer Partnership Fund A II, advised by HarbourVest Horizon. The Reverence Capital Partners fund is a closed-end, commingled investment vehicle focused on partnering with global, middle-market financial services businesses through control and influence-oriented investments.

Reverence is a new relationship for the system. The investment closed Sept. 25.

NYS Common has a 10 percent target allocation to PE and had an 8.4 percent actual allocation as of March 31, 2018.

The system poured $1.96 billion into private equity investments in June, July and August, led by a $750 million commitment to Vista Equity Partners.

Action Item: New York Common’s most recent financial disclosure report: https://bit.ly/2zv7S52