CalPERS takes big stake in Blackstone Capital Partners VIII

California Public Employees’ Retirement System committed $750 million to Blackstone Capital Partners VIII, which has raised more than $22 billion to date.

The $365 billion pension made the commitment under delegated authority in March, a month that saw the pension commit $1.15 billion to private equity. The commitments were reported in documents for CalPERS’s June investment committee meeting.

Blackstone is one of CalPERS’s largest private equity partners, taking home $4.5 billion in commitments from the pension since 2010, including the new commitment and $350 million committed last year to Blackstone’s Tactical Opportunities Fund III.

CalPERS also committed $400 million to Stone Point Capital’s Trident VIII fund, which is capped at $6.5 billion and focuses on financial services in North America and Western Europe. CalPERS previously committed $270 million to Trident VII and $250 million to Trident VI.

CalPERS did not report any new PE commitments for April, but it reported two large commitments in real assets: $1 billion to
GIP Strategic Alliance SMA I and $500 million to the JP Morgan Infrastructure Investments Fund.

CalPERS recently hired a managing investment director for private equity, and is in the midst of a reform effort that could lead to the creation of two new CalPERS-controlled PE funds focused on long-duration investments and technology. CalPERS is also trying to reboot a co-investment program that stopped in 2016.

New PE head Greg Ruiz, formerly of Altamont Capital Partners, is set to join CalPERS in late summer.

CalPERS’s PE portfolio is worth an estimated $26.2 billion, about 7.2 percent of the pension’s total assets under management.

Action Item: View materials from CalPERS’ upcoming investment committee meeting here  https://bit.ly/2R8Ly9i