South Carolina Retirement System Investment Commission, Columbia, posted a net return of -0.9% for the fiscal year ended June 30.
The $38.3 billion South Carolina Retirement Systems still topped its benchmark of -5.2%, the commission announced Tuesday.
For the three, five and 10 years ended June 30, the retirement system returned an annualized net 7.8%, 7.4% and 7.5%, respectively, compared with their respective benchmark returns of 5.9%, 6.3% and 6.7%.
The retirement system returned a net 28.6% for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2021.
"Obviously, we never like to see a negative performance year, however, given the turbulence in markets during the back half of the fiscal year, we are quite pleased with how the portfolio held up," CEO Michael Hitchcock said in a statement.
For the year ended June 30, the Russell 3000 index and Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond index returned -13.9% and -10.3%, respectively, in sharp contrast to returns of 44.2% and 4.6% for the year ended June 30, 2021.
By asset class, private equity returned a net 29.9% (above its 23.5% benchmark); private debt returned 11.6% (benchmark 4.8%); public equity, -16.1% (-16.5% ); and bonds, -7.8% (-10.3%).
Despite its strong performance, real assets was the only asset class to trail its benchmark; it returned 25.4% (below its 28.4% benchmark).
As of June 30, the actual allocation was 41.9% public equity; 19% bonds; 14.9% private equity; 14.9% real assets; and 9.4% private debt. Allocation doesn't total 100% due to rounding.
The RSIC manages the assets of South Carolina state pension funds on behalf of the South Carolina Public Employee Benefit Authority, Columbia.
Further information about how individual asset classes performed over the fiscal year are to be presented at the commission's Sept. 8 meeting, the announcement said.
