San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System backs BGH, SoftBank funds

  • Assets under management: $24 bln
  • Private markets allocation: 16.9%
  • What’s New: SFERS allocates $75 mln to new funds from BGH Capital, SoftBank

San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System closed two new private equity and venture capital commitments in May, allocating $75 million across new funds from BGH Capital and SoftBank.

The commitments were disclosed in an investment report presented at the system’s May 23 board meeting.

The $24 billion retirement system committed $50 million to BGH’s debut fund, which recently held a final close on A$2.6 billion ($2 billion).

The firm is led by former TPG Partners Ben Gray and Simon Harle as well as Robin Bishop, former head of Macquarie’s Australia and New Zealand team.

The founders launched BGH in 2017 to invest in mid-market companies based in Australia and New Zealand. The firm invests across a wide range of strategies and controls an operations group, which it uses to support its portfolio companies’ management teams.

The system also committed $25 million to SB China Venture Capital, a SoftBank affiliate that is raising its sixth fund with an undisclosed target. The SBCVC team is led by Managing Partners Chauncey Shey, Peter Hua, Alan Song and Tim Liu.

San Francisco’s PE portfolio, which includes its allocations to VC funds, was valued at almost $4 billion as of April 30, according to May 23 meeting materials. The retirement system had a 16.9 percent allocation to the asset class.

Earlier this month, SFERS unveiled an investment plan that called for as much as $4.5 billion in new commitments to private credit funds over the next six years. The system expects to deploy between $700 million and $750 million annually.

Action Item: San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System: mysfers.org