Arkansas Teacher Retirement System, Little Rock, approved up to $105 million total in new and additional commitments, said George Hopkins, executive director.
The $14.7 billion pension fund committed up to $30 million to EnCap Energy Capital Fund X, an oil and gas fund managed by EnCap Investments. It previously committed to the two predecessor funds.
The pension fund also committed up to $30 million to Lone Star Real Estate Fund IV, a real estate debt fund managed by Lone Star Funds.
Also, an additional commitment of up to $25 million was made to Franklin Park Co-Investment Fund for select opportunities with emerging manager funds as well as potential new co-investments. The pension fund previously committed $70 million to the fund. Of that $70 million, about $48 million has already been invested in 10 co-investments, documents prepared for the Monday board meeting said. The additional $25 million does not increase the overall private equity pacing for the year ended Dec. 31. ATRS expects to commit a total of $245 million to private equity managers in 2015.
The EnCap and Franklin Park commitments will fall under the pension fund's private equity allocation, which has a 10% target. The Lone Star commitment will fall under real assets which has a 15% target.
Separately, the pension fund hired Circumference Group as the first manager for the ATRS opportunities fund. Wanting to take advantage of the “often enhanced returns from smaller, more specialized opportunities,” ATRS staff and its investment consultant, Aon Hewitt Investment Consulting, began identifying Arkansas-based managers for its new opportunities fund in late 2013, the meeting documents said.
The pension fund committed up to $20 million to the Circumference Group Core Value Fund, an “opportunistic/alternative fund that seeks to utilize the firm's operational experience in the fields of information technology, telecommunications and business services industries,” the meeting materials said. Of that $20 million, half will be transferred over time to the Circumference Group Concentrated Positions Fund, which is “intended to leverage the core value fund research and acquire larger positions of the same industries,” the meeting documents said.
