The Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System (PERS) has shortlisted five candidates in its absolute return manager search, pending investment board approval, and has concurrently announced its private markets commitment pacing plan for 2025.
In meeting materials for the board’s December 6 session, the pension’s evaluation committee recommended the hiring of AQR Helix Strategy, Brevan Howard Alpha Strategies Master Fund Limited, Bracebridge Absolute Return Composite, Blackstone Strategic Opportunity Fund, and Navigator Fund, selected out of 93 total respondents to the RFP. A “phase three” of the selection process is due for the five finalists, and upon completion will be awarded notices of intent.
Iowa PERS also released updated allocation targets for the sub-asset classes of its private markets portfolio in the coming year, with real assets seeing a doubling in recommended exposure, from its current target allocation of $500M to $1B for 2025. The allocation will comprise of up to $400M in real estate, up to $500M in other real assets, and up to $100M in co-investment strategies.
In contrast, private credit target allocations decreased from the current $700M to $650M for 2025, comprising $300M in opportunistic funds, $100M in direct lending, $150M in real assets credit, and $100M in co-investments.
Meanwhile, private equity will maintain its $700M target made up of 65% primaries, 20% co-investments, and 15% secondaries, in line with the portfolio’s long-term benchmarks.
As of November, the Iowa pension currently allocates approximately 30% of its total $45.3B portfolio to private markets, consisting of private equity with an exposure of 17.4%, private real assets with 6.7%, and private credit with 6%.
