New York State Common Retirement Fund, Albany, made a $500 million separate account commitment to Blackstone Tactical Opportunities Fund, the first foray into what the pension fund calls an opportunistic asset class, said Eric Sumberg, a spokesmen for state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, the sole trustee of the $160.7 billion fund.
The pension fund is seeking “opportunities to achieve above-average returns for our retirees and beneficiaries,” Mr. DiNapoli said in a news release issued Thursday. “The opportunistic portfolio will allow the (pension) fund to be flexible in finding and capitalizing on solid risk-adjusted investment opportunities.”
In an interview, Mr. Sumberg said investments in the opportunistic asset class could include “alternative credit, examples of which are middle-market lending and distressed debt.” Investments also could include “direct transactions and cross-asset class investments in funds that, for example, have private equity and real estate holdings,” he added.
Mr. Sumberg said the pension fund's long-term target is a 4% allocation to opportunistic assets, adding that the fund hasn't set a timetable for achieving that goal.
