Oregon Investment Council, Tigard, committed a total of $2.15 billion to alternative funds, according to information on the council's website, including a recording of its Jan. 30 meeting.
The council, which runs the $79.1 billion Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund, committed $650 million to Bridgewater Associates All Weather strategy, rounding out its new 2.5% risk parity allocation. The council approved the risk parity allocation in April, which equates to a roughly $2 billion portfolio. In December, the council hired two other risk parity managers, PanAgora Asset Management and AHL Partners. The council is investing $650 million with each of three managers' risk parity strategies. The council's general investment consultant Callan assisted.
The council also invested $250 million each to Bridgewater Optimal Portfolio, a risk parity strategy, and GMO Systematic Global Macro strategy, a global macro fund managed by GMO.
Oregon also committed $200 million to North American middle-market buyout fund Clearlake Capital Partners VI managed by Clearlake Capital Group.
Separately, the council revised the pension plan's opportunity portfolio standards and procedures, raising its allocation to 5% from 3%. OPERF has $1.7 billion in its opportunity portfolio or 2.3% of the total plan assets. The opportunity portfolio was established in 2005 not only as a home for investments that do not fit within the confines of the pension fund's traditional asset class structure but also a strategy to pursue shorter-term market dislocations such as the bank/leveraged loan opportunity that arose as a result of the 2008 global financial crisis. Staff will report to the board when it invests more than 3% of total plan assets in the opportunity portfolio.
In other news, the council plans to commit $2.5 billion to $3.5 billion to private equity in 2020. Staff anticipates recommending 10 to 15 commitments of $100 million to $500 million, according to the pension plan's annual private equity review and 2020 plan. Oregon committed a total of $2.7 billion to private equity funds in 2019. As of June 30, the portfolio outperformed its primary one-year benchmark a percentage point, returning 11.9%, and its 20-year benchmark by 1.6 percentage points, returning 11.1%, but the private equity portfolio underperformed its primary portfolio in the three, five and 10-year periods.
Oregon's five top private equity general partners — KKR & Co, TPG, Vista Equity Partners, Blackstone Group and Apollo Global Management — manage about 30% of the portfolio.
