New Jersey Pension Fund, Trenton, returned a net 4.16% for the fiscal year ended June 30, exceeding the pension fund's benchmark of 2.93%.
The return on investment was below the $79 billion pension fund's assumed rate of return of 7.9%.
The results, which are unaudited, were presented Wednesday at a meeting of the State Investment Council by the New Jersey Division of Investment, which manages pension fund investments. The council governs investment policies for the division, which is a unit of the state Treasury Department.
This was the fifth consecutive year that the pension fund had outperformed its benchmark, said a report by the division of investment. The five-year annualized return was 10.49% vs. the benchmark of 9.2%.
For the year ended June 30, the report noted that of the seven investment categories that exceeded the 4.16% return, six were part of the pension fund's alternative investment program. Categories surpassing the overall return figure were buyouts/venture capital, real estate, debt-related private equity, real estate debt, equity-oriented hedge funds and global diversified credit. The other category outperforming the overall average was domestic equity.