University of Kansas, Lawrence, returned a net 12% on its endowment for the fiscal year ended June 30, topping the benchmark return of 11.6%, said James G. Clarke, senior vice president of investments and treasurer at KU Endowment, in an email.
“The upward march in equity values helped propel our largest allocation as global equities advanced 24.5%, with double-digit gains in all major geographies aided by our overweight to emerging market stocks,” Mr. Clarke wrote. “Alternative investments including private equity, venture capital and marketable alternatives (hedge funds) lagged behind the public equity markets as we would expect in such an environment, producing returns of 5.8% to 14%.”
A breakout of asset class returns was not immediately available. The report did not specify whether the return was net or gross.
For the three, five and 10 years ended June 30, the $1.4 billion endowment returned an annualized 3.8%, 7.9% and 4.1%, respectively, vs. its benchmark returns of 3.3%, 7.2% and 4.2% in each of those periods. The endowment returned -1.2% in fiscal year 2016.
As of June 30, the endowment had an asset allocation of 16.3% international stocks, 15.9% U.S. stocks, 15.2% real assets, 14% marketable alternatives, 13.2% private investments, 10.1% emerging market stocks, 8.9% bonds, 5.6% opportunistic and 0.8% cash equivalents.
