Iowa Public Employees' Retirement System, Des Moines, allocated up to $650 million to Pathway Capital Management to search for private equity partnerships in 2013, according to an IPERS statement.
Pathway, IPERS' full discretionary private equity manager, is allowed to make commitments that meet IPERS investment criteria.
IPERS has about 12.4% of its $23.9 billion in assets in private equity and debt.
In addition, the IPERS investment board named finalists in a search for a total of $200 million in high-yield real estate debt strategies. Blackstone Real Estate Debt Strategies II, Oaktree Real Estate Opportunities Fund VI, Principal Real Estate Debt Fund and Torchlight Investor Debt Opportunity Fund IV were “selected for further consideration,” the statement said.
The board expects to make a decision in the next few months, the statement said.
Wilshire Associates, the retirement system's investment consulting firm, is assisting in the search.
Separately, IPERS' funded status basically stayed the same for the fiscal year ended June 30, at 79.91% compared to 79.89% the previous fiscal year, according to its annual actuarial valuation report released Thursday.
The pension fund's investments returned 3.73% for the year ended June 30, underperforming its 7.5% customized benchmark target return, according to the actuarial report and a related IPERS statement.
The pension fund's 7.5% assumed rate of return on investments remains unchanged, according to the report, prepared by Cavanaugh Macdonald Consulting, the retirement system's actuarial consulting firm.
The IPERS investment board plans to schedule an educational session to review the assumed return rate.
“It's been a long, slow recovery from the Great Recession for all of us, including IPERS,” Donna M. Mueller, IPERS' CEO, said in the statement about the actuarial report. “However, the last few years have brought stability and positive growth. Fiscal year 2012 results show that IPERS continues to trend in the right direction.”
