Alternatives Help Boost CalPERS Returns

For the fiscal year ending June 30, CalPERS disclosed an overall gain of 11.4%. The pension credited a handful of reasons for the up-tick, including stabilization in the financial markets and an increase in market liquidity. The pension’s investments in the alternatives space, namely private equity and hedge funds, performed well.

The value of CalPERS’ private equity investments jumped a whopping 30.9% from the previous year. Private equity is part of the pension’s Alternative Investment Management (AIM) program, which, for the period ended March 31, had a market value of $27 billion. AIM’s investments comprised 12.8% of CalPERS’ overall investments.

Hedge fund performance is part of CalPERS’ Risk Managed Absolute Return Strategies (RMARS), which returned 16.2% for the year as of March 31. The RMARS program was valued at $5.3 billion.

Hedgefund Net / Calpers Press Release