The
You can find the Vista Portfolio on the CalPERS Alternative Investment Management Program web site, although it’s easy to miss. It looks like many of the other limited partnerships listed, and (like the funds of funds in the CalPERS portfolio) you actually have to click through to see the underlying funds. All told, the portfolio consists of interests in 40 funds vintage 1992 to 2007 to which the pension fund committed more than $2 billion; general partners include diversified mega-firm
There have been two ways that funds end up in the Vista Portfolio, according to a source who’s familiar with its makeup. Many are among the interests that CalPERS had put up for sale on the secondary market in 2007 and 2008, but ended up holding on to. CalPERS had used the sale, which generated some $2.6 billion in proceeds, as part of a consolidation effort, to “eliminate some redundancy among funds,” “focus on top-quartile performers,” and other reasons, a CalPERS spokesman wrote in an e-mail.
Additional fund interests have been added to the Vista Portfolio since the secondary sale, after similarly being deemed non-core, according to our source familiar with the makeup of the portfolio. Notably, presence in the portfolio does not mean the end of CalPERS’s relationship with a particular general partner. Two funds in the portfolio are managed by long-time CalPERS partner Carlyle Group, in which the pension fund acquired an ownership stake. Nor does it means the funds have performed poorly: Five of the funds generated net IRRs of more than 20 percent.
It’s not clear whether CalPERS would consider a bulk sale of the Vista Portfolio. The spokesman wrote that the pension fund does not discuss strategy or secondary sales. Fourteen of the Vista Portfolio partnerships are vintage 2000 or older, suggesting secondary buyers would demand a substantial discount to NAV, a result which might be tough for the pension fund to swallow. CalPERS is not believed to have shown much interest in smaller, one-off sales.
For the moment, management of the portfolio has been outsourced to Sacramento, Calif.-based
Below we pick out the 10 best-performing funds of the Vista Portfolio, to give a pick-me-up to these unwanted funds at this charitable time of year. All data comes from CalPERS and is current as of March 31.
1. Carlyle Realty Qualified Ptrs III LP
Vintage: 2001
Net IRR: 28.5%
Investment Multiple: 2.0x
Commitment: $50 million
2. Alta V Limited Partnership
Vintage: 1992
Net IRR: 25.5%
Investment Multiple: 2.4x
Commitment: $35 million
3. Golder, Thoma, Cressey & Rauner Fund IV
Vintage: 1994
Net IRR: 25.1%
Investment Multiple: 2.1x
Commitment: $25 million
4. Acon-Bastion Partners II LP
Vintage: 2006
Net IRR: 23.7%
Investment Multiple: 1.7x
Commitment: $70 million
5. APA Excelsior IV LP
Vintage: 1995
Net IRR: 20.2%
Investment Multiple: 2.0x
Commitment: $25 million
6. Carlyle Europe Realty Partners LP
Vintage: 2002
Net IRR: 16.4%
Investment Multiple: 1.8x
Commitment: $30.4 million
7. Lombard Thailand Partners LP
Vintage: 2001
Net IRR: 15.9%
Investment Multiple: 2.1x
Commitment: $75 million
8. Ethos Private Equity Fund III
Vintage: 1996
Net IRR: 12.9%
Investment Multiple: 1.7x
Commitment: $25 million
9. Lombard Asia III
Vintage: 2007
Net IRR: 12.7%
Investment Multiple: 1.3x
Commitment: $46.9 million
10. Falconhead Capital Partners II LP
Vintage: 2006
Net IRR: 8.5%
Investment Multiple: 1.3x
Commitment: $50 million