North Carolina Retirement Systems, Raleigh, returned 11.84% on its investments in 2012, putting the pension fund's assets back to pre-recession levels, reported state Treasurer Janet Cowell, the pension fund's sole trustee.
The pension fund's benchmark returned 11.49% for the same time period.
The biggest challenge now, Ms. Cowell said in a statement, “is reallocating our portfolio away from low-interest bonds to take advantage of more attractive investments as the economy continues to recover.”
For the year ended Dec. 31, the biggest gains came from global equity, which returned 17.59%. A relatively new credit portfolio returned 13.95%, and real estate earned 8.88%. Fixed income returned 7.29%, and an alternatives portfolio dominated by private equity returned 5.51%.
The $78.1 billion pension fund's current allocation is 44.6% global equity, 35.4% fixed income, 7.9% real estate, 4.9% alternatives, 4.1% credit strategies and 3.1% inflation strategies.
