Brown endowment gains 19% in fiscal year

Brown University endowment’s investments returned 19% in the past fiscal year, according to information on the school’s website.

The endowment was valued at $2.5 billion as of June 30, after $69 million in new gifts and $111 million in spending, the Providence, R.I., school said in a statement on its website.

Following the 2008 Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. bankruptcy, Brown’s investment committee “chose to hold a portfolio with slightly less market exposure than in prior years,” the school said. As of June 30, the fund had 21% in global stocks, 31% in hedged strategies, 22% in private equity, 14% in real assets and 12% in fixed income and cash.

Brown generated an average annual return of 7.7% over the past decade.