West Coast investors dominated the Alternatives Watch headlines last month as institutional investors allocated $6.3 billion in February across a wide spectrum of alternative investment strategies.
Among the most active were the Washington State Investment Board (WSIB) and the Oregon Investment Council, representing a combined $3.4 billion in commitment activity.
The WSIB, which oversees an $114 billion portfolio that includes the state’s pension assets, placed more than $2 billion across the real estate and private equity investment spectrum toward the tail-end of 2019, but recorded by Alternatives Watch in February.
The Oregon Investment Council, which oversees the $79 billion Oregon Public Employees’ Retirement Fund, is planning to make new private equity commitments totaling between $2.5 billion and $3.5 billion in 2020.
Meanwhile on the private debt side, trustees for the $402 billion California Public Employees Retirement System plan to sponsor legislation to establish specific parameters on what is released publicly related to private debt investments by public pension systems in the state of California.
The largest single manager mandates were to real estate managers Aevitas Property Partners LLC and Partners Enterprise Capital Holdings by the Washington State Investment Board.
A follow-on investment of $500 million was made to Aevitas, which is Washington State’s fifth investment to this group, following commitments beginning at the Dutch firm’s founding in 2012. The system has already committed $750 million. The firm currently manages more than $2 billion in assets with a presence in Europe, Africa and India.
Chicago-based Partners Enterprise Capital (PEC) Holdings also received a $500 million follow-on investment as the firm invests in real estate through entity-level ownership of real estate operating companies and has more than $10 billion in gross assets under management. For Washington State Investment Board, this investment follows a previous commitment to seven investments with PEC totaling $3.5 billion.
The big single mandate winner, however, was Ray Dalio’s Bridgewater Associates, which collected $900 million from the Oregon Investment Council. A $650 million allocation was made to the Bridgewater All Weather Fund, while another $250 million went to the Bridgewater Optimal Portfolio.
All together, Alternatives Watch tracked 51 mandates in February. A full listing follows below.
