University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, disclosed $193.6 million in alternative and absolute-return commitments from its $12.9 billion long-term endowment pool ahead of its Thursday board of regents meeting.
The commitments were made from May through July to four alternative investment strategies and two absolute-return strategies to six existing fund managers. UM's investment office has authority to invest in new funds and strategies offered by existing managers without approval by the board, board documents show.
In alternatives, the university committed €45 million ($51.1 million) to Patron Capital Feeder VI, a London-based real estate fund managed by Patron Capital Partners that invests in distressed and undervalued property assets, loans and corporate entities with substantial underlying property value.
The university also committed $50 million to Roark Diversified Restaurant Fund II, a private equity fund managed by Roark Capital Group that invests in middle-market restaurants headquartered in North America; €30 million to HealthCap VIII, a Stockholm-based venture capital fund that invests in life science and health-care companies; and $2.5 million to a General Catalyst Group IX co-investment. In 2018, the university committed $70 million to General Catalyst Group IX, a venture capital fund managed by General Catalyst Partners.
In absolute return, the university committed $30 million to BioPharma Credit Investments V, a private credit fund that seeks to build a diversified portfolio of high-yielding, senior debt and debt-like securities with short average lives and strong underlying credit characteristics collateralized by cash flows from leading life sciences products of mainly publicly traded companies. Also, $25 million went to Kartesia Credit Opportunities V Feeder SCS, a private pan-European debt fund that invests mainly in senior loans of lower mid-market companies.
Separately, the university disclosed that in May it transferred $37 million to Salient Partners' long-only energy strategy. That month, Salient Partners acquired the portfolio team from The Mitchell Group, with which the university invested in 2015, according to board documents. There has been no change to the strategy, the university noted.
