Texas Teachers commits $420 mln to PE in December

Teacher Retirement System of Texas committed to funds managed by Blackstone Group and Clearlake Capital Group in December, according to the system’s Investments Communications Specialist Rob Maxwell.

The system committed $125 million to Clearlake Capital Partners VI, targeting $5 billion, according to Buyouts.

Founded in 2006, Clearlake focuses on industrial, energy, software, technology-enabled and consumer industries. It has $10 billion of assets under management, according to its website.

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund, Arkansas Teachers Retirement System, Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System, San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System and Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System committed $430 million to Clearlake’s sixth fund, according to data from sister site Private Equity International.

Texas Teachers committed $20 million to Cinven Broadway Limited Partnership. The system has an existing relationship with Cinven Partners, having invested more than $252 million to its seventh fund in April, Buyouts reported. Target information on the Broadway Limited Partnership wasn’t available.

The system pledged up to $200 million to Baring Private Equity Asia’s Bluebonnet Partners. The fund will focus on investments in international markets.

Texas Teachers also committed $75 million to Blackstone Life Sciences V, which has raised $3.44 billion and has a hard cap of $4.58 billion, according to Buyouts.

The system isn’t the only Texas-based pension to invest in the fund, which launched in December. Texas County and District Retirement System committed $125 million to Blackstone Life Sciences V, according to PEI.

The fund was created following Blackstone’s 2018 purchase of the healthcare-focused firm Clarus, which targeted “biopharmaceutical, medical device and diagnostic sectors, across multiple disease areas,” according to Blackstone’s website.

Private equity makes up 13.9 percent of the system’s $21.16 billion portfolio.