Maryland State Retirement & Pension System, Baltimore, has allocated $2.77 billion so far in fiscal year 2019, which began July 1.
According to documents from the Tuesday board meeting, the $52.6 billion pension fund hired Pacific Investment Management Co. and PineBridge Investments to manage $700 million and $600 million, respectively, in high-quality, high-yield bond strategies and Credit Suisse Asset Management for a $650 million U.S. bank loans strategy as part of its credit/debt portfolio. Maryland also hired Semper Capital Management to run $50 million in mortgage-backed securities.
In absolute return, the pension fund invested $300 million in ExodusPoint Partners Fund, a multistrategy hedge fund managed by ExodusPoint Capital Management.
Within private equity, Maryland committed $175 million to Vista Equity Partners Fund VII, a buyout fund with a focus on software, data and technology-enabled solutions companies managed by Vista Equity Partners Management; $110 million to Audax Private Equity Fund VI, a middle-market private equity fund managed by Audax Group; $75 million to Littlejohn Fund VI, a middle-market buyout fund managed by Littlejohn & Co.; $70 million to Baring Asia Private Equity Fund VII, managed by Baring Private Equity Asia; and $40 million to three venture capital funds managed by GGV Capital — $24 million to GGV Capital VII, $10 million to GGV Discovery II and $6 million to GGV Capital VII Plus.
Separately, the board extended Meketa Investment Group's contract as its investment consultant for a one-year period, effective July 1, 2019, through June 30, 2020. The initial five-year contract with Meketa expires June 30, 2019, and has the option of two one-year extensions.
As of Aug. 31, the pension fund's asset allocation was 38.2% public equity, 19% rate sensitive and cash, 12.9% private equity, 12.7% real assets, 8.1% absolute return, 7.5% credit/debt and 1.6% multiasset.
