Wyoming to stand pat on private equity

The board, which manages $18 billion of state assets, approved as much as $600 million for private equity investments more than a year ago at its June 20, 2013 meeting, Walden-Newman said. Wyoming committed $200 million of that total to a single-LP fund of funds managed by Hamilton Lane and another $200 million to a single-LP fund of funds managed by Neuberger Berman last year. 

“That left $200 million on the table. We spent the last year studying whether or not we wanted to allocate more to private equity, and we came to the decision not to,” Walden-Newman said. “We’re at our target allocation with the Neuberger and Hamilton Lane allocations, so we thought we’ll just stick to our allocation.”

Wyoming has a 4 percent target allocation to private equity.

The state loan and investment board consists of Wyoming’s governor, the secretary of state, the state auditor, the state treasurer and the superintendent of public instruction. Day-to-day management of the state’s investment portfolio falls to the Wyoming Treasurer’s Office, Walden- Newman said.