CalPERS Considering Selling Up to $6bn in Private Equity Stakes

Jan 14, 2022 | News

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) has engaged financial services company Jefferies about the potential of selling up to $6bn of its private equity stakes, according Buyouts magazine.

This comes just after CalPERS announced it would be increasing the percentage of its portfolio allotted to private equity to 13% from 8% in November.

CalPERS board member Margaret Brown told Secondaries Investor in November that the fund is considering investing in secondaries and divesting from some of its legacy private equity investments.

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“We have some really old private equity that’s just sitting there and doing nothing,” she said.

Private equity has performed extremely well for public pensions this past year. Major funds such as the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS), the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System (MSRPS), and the Public Employees’ Retirement System of Mississippi all saw private equity returns of above 50% in fiscal year 2020-2021.

CalPERS saw 43.8% in private equity returns for the fiscal year ending in June. It was the fund’s best-performing asset class. CalPERS had a total net return of 21.3%.

Source: CIO

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