Texas Teachers commits $720 mln to PE, bets big on Blackstone

Teacher Retirement System of Texas committed more than $700 million to private equity in March, with Blackstone Group taking home most of the new commitment dollars.

The $154 billion retirement system committed $600 million to Blackstone Capital Partners VIII, a megafund that has attracted large commitments from the retirement systems of Oregon and Massachusetts, among others. Bloomberg recently reported that the fund held a first close on more than $22 billion.

Texas TRS also committed $100 million to Crestview Partners IV fund, and added nearly $20 million to a separately managed account with KKR, called Alamo. Crestview’s fund will focus on small and mid-market buyouts in the U.S., with a target size of $3.5 billion.

The new funding for KKR will go toward venture and growth equity investments in international emerging markets. Texas TRS committed $225 million to the KKR Alamo fund earlier in the year, with that capital going toward large buyouts in the U.S. In total, Texas Teachers has $287.3 million committed to the Alamo fund, as of March 31.

Texas TRS has a $21.2 billion PE portfolio, accounting for 13.8 percent of its retirement fund assets.

The retirement system also invested $467 million in real assets funds in March; committing $250 million to Equity International Management’s River Washington fund, $117 million to Lionstone Partners’ Houston BBP fund and $100 million to Square Mile Capital Management’s Square Mile OCS Co-Investment fund.

Action Item: Find out more about Texas TRS’s private markets investment team: https://bit.ly/2WTUEIv

Updated: This article has been updated to include information on Texas TRS’s past commitments to KKR’s Alamo fund.