New Jersey Division of Investment, Trenton, invested an additional $40 million in Centerbridge Credit Partners, bringing the division’s total investment to $140 million, confirmed Andrew Pratt, a spokesman.
In a memo from Timothy M. Walsh, the $70 billion division’s director, presented at Wednesday’s New Jersey State Investment Council meeting, the division first invested $100 million in the distressed credit securities hedge fund in November 2007. Since then, the Centerbridge fund’s cumulative return is 47% as of Oct. 31 and “is one of our best performing hedge funds,” wrote Mr. Walsh in the memo.
The hedge fund had negative performance of 23.2% in 2008, Mr. Walsh wrote, but in 2009 “rebounded nicely with 62.5% and 2010 (year-to-date) return of 17.4%.”
Separately, the division returned 8.71% on its investments in the five months ended Nov. 30, slightly above the 8.53% return of the customized benchmark for the same period, according Mr. Walsh’s investment report to the council. Total assets of the fund dropped 1.4% in November, according to Mr. Walsh’s report.