Illinois State Universities Retirement System, Champaign, expects to target $90 million to $100 million in new commitments to private equity this year, said John R. Krimmel, chief investment officer for the $12 billion system. It expects to continue to target that level of new funding for the next three to four years, he added.
The system will look for new private equity opportunities, Mr. Krimmel said, with plans to increase its exposure beyond the 4% allocation, as the policy allows a band of plus or minus 3 percentage points from the target. It may go to 5% or somewhat higher, he said, but "we don’t expect to hit the 7% band.”
"We view private equity as a U.S. equity portfolio on steroids,” Mr. Krimmel said. "New funding will generally come from cash flow. If we have to pull money from somewhere else, most likely it would be from domestic equities.”
