Ventura County (Calif.) Employees' Retirement Association reported a preliminary net return of -6.2% for the fiscal year ended June 30.
The $7 billion pension fund's preliminary return well exceeded the policy benchmark return of -9.3% for the period, according to an investment report on its website.
For the three, five and 10 years ended June 30, VCERA reported preliminary annualized net returns of 7.8%, 7.9% and 8.5%, respectively, above their respective benchmark returns of 6.7%, 7.3% and 8.4%.
The latest fiscal-year returns for the pension fund reflect a challenging return environment for public equities and fixed income during the past year, although VCERA's significant exposure to alternative investments partially offset those poor returns.
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.
The pension fund had returned a net 30.3% for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2021.
For the fiscal year ended June 30, private equity had the top preliminary net return at 28.3% (compared with the benchmark return of -12.1%), followed by real estate at 20.5% (below the 28.4% benchmark); private debt, 8.6% (-7.5%); real assets, -6.2% (11.2%); domestic equities, -14.4% (-13.9%); international equities, -20.2% (-19.4%); global equity, -15.5% (-15.8%); domestic fixed income, -10.3% (-10.3%); and U.S. Treasuries, -11% (-10.5%).
As of June 30, the actual allocation was 25.9% domestic equities, 18.2% private equity, 13.7% international equities, 10.9% domestic fixed income, 9.6% global equity, 7.5% real assets, 7.3% real estate, 4.6% private debt, 1.1% U.S. Treasuries and the rest in overlay.
