University of Virginia endowment posts 5.8% for fiscal year

Updated with correction

University of Virginia Investment Management Co.'s pool of $9.6 billion in endowment assets and other long-term funds returned a gross 5.8% for the fiscal year ended June 30, according to an annual report posted on UVIMCO's website.

The return fell short of the pool's policy benchmark return of 7.9%.

For the three, five and 10 years ended June 30, the pool returned an annualized gross 9.8%, 7% and 11%, above the respective benchmarks of 8.9%, 6% and 9.2%.

For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2018, the pool returned a gross 11.4%.

The best-performing asset class was private equity, which returned a gross 21.9% for the fiscal year ended June 30. Following were fixed income at 6.6%; public equities, 6.1%; real estate, 5.1%; cash and currency, 2.1%; long/short equities, 1.5%; marketable alternatives and credit, 1.4%; and natural resources, -10.5%.

Policy benchmarks were provided only for broad asset classes. Total equities (public, private, long/short) returned a gross 8.8%, above the 6.3% benchmark; total fixed income, cash, and marketable alternatives and credit returned 2.7%, below the 7.8% benchmark; and total real assets (real estate, resources) returned -4.1%, below the 13.8% benchmark.

As of June 30, the actual allocation was: 28.8% public equities; 20.1% long/short equities; 18.5% private equity; 12.1% marketable alternatives and credit; 6.7% fixed income; 5.4% natural resources; 4.8% real estate; and 3.6% cash and currency.

UVIMCO manages the long-term pool on behalf of the Charlottesville-based university and its foundations. UVIMCO officials could not be immediately reached to provide further information.