Louisiana State Employees’ Retirement System, Baton Rouge, returned 14% for the fiscal year ended June 30, the pension fund said in an Aug. 27 news release.
The $15.1 billion pension fund cited strong equity markets for the double-digit performance for the period.
“This year's investment performance underscores our commitment to strategic asset allocation and prudent risk management,” said Bobby Beale, chief investment officer, in the news release. “The plan benefited from favorable equity markets, as well as our allocation to global multisector/opportunistic investments, which comprises the majority of our fixed-income portfolio.”
LASERS’ total equity portfolio returned 18.9% for the fiscal year ended June 30, while global multisector/opportunistic investments returned 14.3%. The pension fund’s total alternatives asset class returned 6.2% for the fiscal year ended June 30.
Benchmark information was not provided. Of the 36 public pension funds whose most recent fiscal-year returns have been tracked by Pensions & Investments as of Aug. 27, LASERS has the second-highest return. The median return for the universe is 9.9%.
For the three, five and 10 years ended June 30, the pension fund returned an annualized 5.7%, 9% and 7.3%, respectively.
The pension fund had returned 11.7% for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2023.
For equities, LASERS reported gross returns, fixed income is a mixed composite containing portfolios providing both gross and net returns, and alternatives are net of fees, according to the pension fund’s website.
As of June 30, the pension fund’s actual allocation was 25.4% domestic large-cap equities, 21.7% private markets, 13.1% global multisector fixed income, 7.6% international large-cap equities, 6.3% emerging markets equities, 5.2% domestic small-cap equities, 5.1% domestic midcap equities, 4.3% absolute return, 4% international small-cap equities, 3.5% emerging markets debt, 2.9% core fixed income and 0.9% cash equivalents.
