CalPERS will invest in the Ares Corporate Opportunities Fund, a distressed debt fund focusing on middle-market companies. The investment will be $50 million or 10% of the total fund size, whichever is higher. Ares was called Lion Advisors; it was an affiliate of private equity firm Apollo Management.
Separately, the board of the $131 billion California Public Employees’ Retirement System, Sacramento, in closed session last month turned down a request from Progress Putnam Lovell to extend its investment period by three months. The joint venture between Progress Investment Management and Putnam Lovell Capital Partners has invested $850 million of a $1 billion allocation in new and emerging managers, but its three-year investment period expired March 31, said Jeff Lovell, chairman and managing director of Putnam Lovell NBF Private Equity. The firm will be able to allocate the remaining money among its eight portfolio companies but will not be able to take equity stakes in new managers. "It won’t change what we’re doing for CalPERS,” said Thurman White, CEO of Progress. CalPERS officials did not respond to requests for comment by press time.