Louisiana School Employees' Retirement System, Baton Rouge, made three new commitments totaling $100 million, said Matthew Freedman, chief investment officer, in an email.
The $1.8 billion pension fund committed $40 million to Scout Energy Partners IV, a U.S.-focused energy fund, and $30 million each to Henderson Park Real Estate Fund I, an opportunistic real estate fund managed by Henderson Park Capital Management, and HighBrook Property Fund III, an opportunistic real estate fund managed by HighBrook Investors. All are first-time commitments to these managers, Mr. Freedman said.
As of June 30, the actual allocations to real estate and real assets were 8.7% and 2.3%, respectively.
Investment consultant Segal Marco Advisors assisted.
Separately, the pension fund returned a gross 6.62% for the fiscal year ended June 30, said an investment report posted on the pension fund's website, 88 basis points below the policy benchmark of 7.5%.
The pension fund returned an annualized gross 6.86%, 8.22% and 7.4%, respectively, for the three, five and 10 years ended June 30, compared to their respective benchmarks of 7.08%, 8.3% and 7.02%. The pension fund returned a gross 16.64% for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2017.
The best-performing asset class for the fiscal year ended June 30 was domestic equities, which returned a gross 15.85%, above its benchmark of 14.78%, followed by core real estate, which returned a gross 9.32% compared to its 8.6% benchmark. Other asset class returns were: international equities, which returned 8.24%, above the 6.84% benchmark; emerging markets equities, 3.75% (8.2% benchmark); real estate investment trusts, 1.87%, (3.57%); fixed income, 0.94%, (0.7%); and real assets, -0.59%. No benchmark was provided for real assets, while private equity returns were not provided.
As of June 30, the actual allocation was 23.4% domestic equities, 22.8% international equities, 11.2% emerging markets equities, 10.7% domestic fixed income, 9% global fixed income, 8.7% real estate, 6.5% emerging markets debt, 4.7% private equity, 1.5% cash, 1.4% other equities and 0.1% other illiquid assets.
