Wisconsin reports 2019 Q3 commitments and results

State of Wisconsin Investment Board made just under $500 million in private equity and other alternative commitments in the third quarter of 2019, according to documents posted on its website.

The commitments were:

• $75 million to Charlesbank Credit Opportunities Fund II, managed by Charlesbank Capital Partners;

• $85 million to Flexpoint Fund IV, a $1.5 billion fund managed by Flexpoint Ford that closed in July and will focus on the financial services and health care industry;

• $27.5 million KLH Capital Fund IV, a buyouts fund managed by KLH Capital Partners with a $200 million target, according to a form D;

• $50 million to Varsity Healthcare Partners III, managed by Varsity Healthcare Partners and which closed at its $417 million hard cap in August, according to sister site PE Hub;

The commitments also included $80 million to an unidentified “materials co-investment” and $160 million to “SPC Wilson Point.” Wisconsin did not respond to a request for comment about what exactly these commitments were.

2019 third quarter performance

At its December meeting, the board also received a report on Q3 performance.

As of Sept. 30, the Wisconsin Core Trust Fund was valued at $103.5 billion, with 9.4 percent of that allocated to private equity and a market value of $9.7 billion. Its private equity returns as of September 30 were 9.01 percent for the calendar year, 11.42 percent over one year, 12.09 percent over five years and 13.68 percent over 10 years.

Private equity/debt was the best-performing asset class. The report said private equity and real estate were the “main drivers of excess return” over benchmarks over five years.

Overall returns for the core trust were 13.71 percent for the calendar year, 6.21 percent over one year, 6.59 percent over five years and 8.04 percent over 10 years.

As of Sept. 30, Wisconsin had $122.9 billion in total assets under management.

Action Item: read Wisconsin’s December meeting materials here.