LPs must seize current market conditions as a chance to push back on terms and secure better alignment of interests, Joe Dear said at a conference in LA. Fellow panelist Harold Bradley, CIO of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, lamented 'we are feeding a fee machine'.
As a kick-back scandal involving several public pensions grows in the US, LACERS is the latest pension to draft a disclosure policy for placement agents and other third-party marketers.
The largest pension in the US has charged its staff with creating a disclosure policy for placement agents and their fees after it was revealed that CalPERS has ties to a kick-back scandal involving the New York State Common Retirement Fund.
The San Francisco-based firm has closed its eighth private equity real estate fund, targeting all property sectors in the US.
The Teacher Retirement System of Texas is set to commit up to $2bn in capital to real estate in an effort to close the 6% gap between its actual and target allocations.
The placement agent, co-founded by AVP executives Vicky Schiff and Peter Borges, paid ‘consulting’ fees to the firm run by Henry Morris. Morris is now under investigation as part of the growing kick-back scandal involving the New York State Common Retirement Fund.
The Abu Dhabi investment fund’s annual report reveals it has written down its 7.5% stake in Carlyle’s management company, which would value the private equity firm at roughly $12.7bn.
The pension, with assets of $16bn as of 30 June 2008, made more than $300m of commitments in the past month, including to a debt fund from Mesa West Capital. The Mesa West fund, which is reportedly targeting up to $500m, is expected to close in the coming months, sources say.
The Canadian pension fund lost 25% of its value last year leaving it with just C$120bn in assets compared to C$155bn in 2007. Private equity and real estate investments lost 31% and 22% respectively, with Caisse warning its Lone Star investments had performed poorly.
The state’s comptroller, Thomas DiNapoli, has banned the use of placement agents in investments with the $122bn pension, and has launched a review of pension investments with firms involved in the New York Common kick-back scandal.