University of Illinois' university and foundation endowments each returned a net 2.5% for the fiscal year ended June 30, vs. their 2.8% and 1.3% benchmarks, respectively, said endowment reports provided by university and foundation staff.
For the $649 million university endowment, real estate was the top performer, returning 9.6% in the 12 months, followed by private equity at 9.1%; U.S. equity, 7.8%; hedge funds, 4.3%; and total fixed income, 2.3%. At the other end was international equity, which returned -5%; farmland, -3.1%; and global equity, -1.3%.
At the end of June, the Champaign-based university endowment had an asset allocation of 24.5% global equity, 20.7% U.S. equity, 18.6% fixed income, 10.5% international equity, 9.4% hedge funds, 5.8% farmland, 5.6% real estate, 4.1% private equity and the remainder in cash.
For the separate $1.5 billion foundation endowment pool, long-biased/hedged equity was the highest-returning asset class for the 12-month period at 10.3%, followed by private equity, 9.64%; U.S. equity, 8.39%; international developed equity, 0.17%; global rates, -2.17; real assets, -2.29% and emerging markets, -8.15%.
Also as of June 30, the Urbana-based foundation endowment pool had a target allocation of 38% global equity; 30% marketable strategies, which includes areas such as hedged equity; 22% private assets, which comprises private equity and real assets; and 10% global fixed income.
Longer term, the university endowment pool returned an annualized 10.7%, 12.4% and 7%, respectively, for the three, five and 10 years ended June 30, while the foundation endowment pool returned an annualized 10%, 10.3% and 6.1%, respectively, in each of those periods.
Figures are preliminary.
