Ohio School Employees allocates $150 million among 3 firms; returns 9.17% for fiscal year

Ohio School Employees Retirement System, Columbus, made three new allocations totaling $150 million, said Tim Barbour, pension fund spokesman in an email.

The $14.3 billion pension fund committed $50 million to Almanac Realty Securities VIII, a non-core real estate fund managed by Almanac Realty Investors. The pension fund previously committed $75 million to Almanac Realty Securities VII in 2015. The commitment falls within the pension fund's real assets allocation.

The pension fund also committed $50 million to Barings Asset-Based Income Fund, which focuses investment in infrastructure, intangible assets, natural resources and capital assets. The commitment falls within the pension fund's opportunistic and tactical allocation.

Finally, the pension fund's board hired BNY Mellon unit Mellon Capital Management to run $50 million in an enhanced domestic large-cap equity strategy. Funding comes from cash.

Separately, SERS announced a preliminary net return of 9.17% for the fiscal year ended June 30, Mr. Barbour said. The pension fund exceeded its primary benchmark by 90 basis points, he said.

The top-performing asset class was private equity, which returned a net 19.84% for the fiscal year ended June 30, followed by domestic equities at 14.76%, opportunistic strategies at 11.62% and real assets, 9.75%.

International equities returned a net 7.33%, multiasset strategies came in at 3.93% and global fixed income returned -0.1%.

In the three, five and 10 years ended June 30, SERS returned an annualized net 7.8%, 8.82% and 13.1%, respectively. The pension fund returned a net 13.3% in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2017.

The pension fund's target allocation is: 22.5% each, domestic and international equities; 19% global fixed income; 15% global real assets; 10% each, global private equity and multi-asset strategies; and 1%, cash equivalents.

As of May 31, the pension fund's actual allocation was: 24.1% international equities, 23.3% domestic equities, 14% global fixed income, 13.6% global real assets, 9.5% global private equity, 8.3% multiasset strategies, 4.7% cash equivalents, and 2.5% opportunistic and tactical investments.