Arkansas Teacher Retirement System, Little Rock, committed a total of $135 million to three private equity funds and a real estate fund, said George Hopkins, executive director of the $11.6 billion system.
The board approved committing $35 million each to Riverside Fund V, Court Square Capital Partners Fund III and TPG Credit Strategies Fund II. The fund previously committed $40 million to Riverside Fund IV, Mr. Hopkins said in a telephone interview. The other two are first-time commitments to those managers.
The Riverside fund will focus on profitable family and management-owned companies with enterprise values between $25 million and $150 million. The Court Square fund will target upper-middle-market companies in the business services, general industrial, health-care, telecommunications and technology sectors. The TPG offering is a distressed debt fund investing in the U.S. and Europe.
Private equity consultant Franklin Park assisted.
The board also approved committing $30 million to Rockwood Capital Real Estate Partners Fund IX, a value-added fund. Hewitt EnnisKnupp assisted.
Separately, Hewitt EnnisKnupp presented to the board an asset/liability study. Mr. Hopkins said there were no changes to the pension fund's asset allocation. There will likely be a “slight tweak or two” within the private equity portfolio, increasing the allocation to distressed debt strategies to provide better liquidity, Mr. Hopkins said.
