New York State Common Retirement Fund, Albany, committed $75 million to Blum Strategic Partners IV and $25 million to Paladin III. The fund also put $12.35 million into a land site in Minooka, Ill., purchased through the Liberty Property Trust Joint Venture. In absolute-return strategies, the fund invested $33 million in Harbinger Capital Partners Fund I, an event-driven fund; $20 million in Blackthorn Fund, an equity market neutral fund; $15 million each in Amber Fund, an event-driven fund, and North Pole Capital; $10 million with III Onsure, a fixed-income arbitrage strategy; and $2 million in Solus, a distressed-focused fund.
The $154.5 billion system has switched to monthly reporting of investment transactions from annual reporting to increase transparency. All the alternative investments were made in November, the first monthly report from the system. “We need to set the bar for transparency and integrity,” state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, the fund’s sole trustee, said in a statement.
