February 2024 Public Plan Commitment Summary

Staying up to date and understanding public pension fund insights is critical for gaining investment industry knowledge and understanding fundraising trends. The insights in this article reveal current investment strategies and market impacts, providing a comprehensive view of large fund allocations and their influence on asset prices. They enable organizations to benchmark their performance against top public pension funds, facilitating better decision-making.

In the month of February, Dakota tracked a total of approximately $6.8 billion across 77 investments. 30 individual pension funds or entities reported commitments during the month.

In this article we are going over the top allocators, allocations, and terminations made in the month of February. By the end of this, you'll have a better understanding of the Public Pension commitments made in the month of February.

The top allocators during the month were:

• Virginia Retirement System placing $1.3 billion
• New Jersey Division of Investment disclosed $1 billion in new commitments
• Florida State Board disclosed $960 million

Asset Classes:

$2.3 billion moved to Private Equity across 33 investments which accounts for approximately 36% of commitments. Hedge Fund commitments totaled $1.7 billion. Real Assets took in 15% of commitments with $1.0 billion flowing into the asset class between 10 investments. Private Credit saw $800 million in commitments, 12% of total commitments across 9 investments. In Real Estate we tracked close to $800 million across 16 investments,12% of commitments. 

Sub-Asset Classes:

Stemming from the private equity asset class, buyouts made up about 17% of commitments, this includes $1.7 billion across 24 lower middle market, middle market, and large buyout funds. Within Real Assets, over $800 million was placed across 9 Infrastructure investments making up 12% of commitments.

Looking at the largest allocations in February:

• Virginia Retirement System committed  $700 million to the VRS BLK Global Dynamic Allocation Strategy

• New Jersey Division of Investment committed $500 million to StepStone Real Assets SMA

• New Jersey Division of Investment committed $500 million to Blackstone tactical Opportunities Fund - A

• Virginia Retirement System committed  $300 million to MAS Global Dynamic Allocation Strategy
• Los Angeles County Employees’ Retirement Association committed $250 million to Centerbridge Capital Partners V

Terminations reported in February:

• NY Common Retirement Fund  terminated Lisanti Capital Growth ($210M)

• Santa Barbara County ERS terminated Rice Hall James Small Cap Growth
• Virginia Retirement terminated the following managers:
  • BlackRock Shenandoah ($118M) 
  • Shenandoah AQR Market Neutral ($2M) 
  • MetLife Climate Aware Fixed Income ($80M) 
  • Nordea Global Climate & Environment ($51M) 
  • Schroders Global Climate Change ($46M) 
  • Wellington Emerging Markets Development ($117M) 
  • BlackRock Global Tactical Asset Allocation ($762M) 
  • JP Morgan Global Tactical Asset Allocation ($631M) 
  • Solus Core Opportunities ($135M)
• Colorado Fire & Police terminated Hudson Bay Multi-Strategy Fund ($62M)

• Indiana Public Retirement terminated Loomis Sayles Core Plus Fixed Income

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