LP Scorecard: Platinum Hits Jackpot for Florida

It’s U.S. buyouts that are scoring the big returns for Florida State Board Administration (SBA), according to its figures through Dec. 31, 2011.

Domestic funds from managers such as Platinum Equity Partners, Thoma Bravo and Wellspring Capital Partners with vintages ranging between 2003 and 2008 all feature in the top five IRRs recorded for Florida.

Florida’s European bets don’t appear to be faring so well, with eight European funds registering negative IRRs and the highest IRR coming from its European portfolio standing at 7.49% from CVC European Equity Partners V, a 2008 vintage. (Here’s hoping for some stellar performances from Montagu Private Equity Fund IV and BC European Capital IX, to which Florida committed 40 million euros ($48.6 million) and 70 million euros, respectively, last year.

The Florida SBA, which manages $157 billion in pension funds, committed to a total of 13 new funds last year, including EnCap Energy Capital Fund VIII; Cortec Group V; Francisco Partners III; Wellspring Capital Partners V; and TPG Growth II among others. Its two largest commitments, each of $200 million, went to Hellman & Friedman Capital Partners VII LP and GS Partners Buyouts II.

Greg Roth, a reporter for sister magazine Buyouts, wrote in May that the fund had made its first set of private equity commitments under new senior investment officer Trent Webster and his deputy, John Bradley. The Floriday SBA committed $500 million to three buyout funds and another $300 million to a private equity real estate fund.

The commitments included a pledge of $200 million to Leonard Green & Partners’s Green Equity Investors VI LP; a commitment of $200 million to Platinum Equity Partners’s Platinum Equity Capital Partners III LP; a $100 million commitment to Thoma Bravo’s latest fund, Thoma Bravo X LP; and finally $300 million to The Blackstone Group’s latest real estate private equity fund, Blackstone Real Estate Partners VII LP. That commitment is its largest to date since a $500 million pledge to Lexington Co-Investment Partners 2005 LP.

Scroll through the scorecard to see who the best performers by IRR for Florida have been through year-end and how much Florida has committed to these funds.

Image credit: Photo of platinum courtesy of Shutterstock

[slideshow]

[slide title=” 10. Pantheon Global Secondary Fund IV, LP”]

Fund Type: Secondaries

Vintage Year: 2010

Florida Commitment: $ 100,000,000

IRR: 21.15%

[slide title=” 9. Green Equity Investors III, LP.”]

Fund Type: Buyouts

Vintage Year: 1999

Florida Commitment: $60,000,000

IRR: 21.49%

[slide title=” 8. Ares Corporate Opportunities Fund III”]

Fund Type: Buyouts/Distressed

Vintage Year: 2008

Florida Commitment: $100,000,000

IRR: 22.32%

[slide title=” 7. Carlyle Partners III, LP “]

Fund Type: Buyouts

Vintage Year: 2000

Florida Commitment: $200,000,000

IRR: 22.85%

[slide title=” 6. Lexington Co-Investment Partners II, L.P. “]

Fund Type: Secondary and Co-Investment

Vintage Year: 2002

Florida Commitment: $500,000,000

IRR: 24.26%

[slide title=” 5. Wellspring Capital Partners III, LP “]

Fund Type: Buyouts

Vintage Year: 2003

Florida Commitment: $50,000,000

IRR: 26.69%

[slide title=” 4. Hellman & Friedman Capital Partners V, LP. “]

Fund Type: Buyouts

Vintage Year: 2004

Florida Commitment: $75,000,000

IRR: 27.30%

[slide title=” 3. Thoma Bravo Fund IX “]

Fund Type: Buyouts

Vintage Year: 2008

Florida Commitment: $50,000,000

IRR: 30.16%

[slide title=” 2. Apollo Investment Fund V, L.P. “]

Fund Type: Buyouts and restructuring

Vintage Year: 2001

Florida Commitment: $150,000,000

IRR: 37.58%

[slide title=” 1. Platinum Equity Capital Partners I, LP “]

Fund Type: Buyouts

Vintage Year: 2004

Florida Commitment: $50,000,000

IRR: 58.63%

[/slideshow]