NY Pension Giant Earmarks $3 Billion for Multi-Asset Strategic Deals

The $254.8 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund invested more than $4 billion with external managers in April, $3 billion of which was allocated to multi-asset strategic partnerships alone.

In a new strategy for the pension fund, it allocated $1 billion each to Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Schroder Investment Management, and Wellington Management Company. Each of the firms will manage public market multi-asset mandates that will rely on tactical asset allocation to outperform a strategic benchmark consistent with the fund’s benchmark.

The pension also earmarked $600 million to Brookfield Asset Management for two funds: the Brookfield Special Investments Fund LP and BSI Co-Invest (C) LP. Both funds are opportunistic, cross-sector investment vehicles focused on non-control, large-scale, equity, and equity-linked investments created by market dislocations.

The New York Common Retirement Fund also set aside €200 million (US$238.6 million) to the Exeter Europe Logistics Value Fund IV, which will focus on acquiring and developing industrial assets in Europe. It also allocated just under $124 million to PDC Opportunities IX LP, which will invest in debt and equity tranches of collateralized loan obligations (CLOs) managed by third-party investment firms and may also invest in CLO warehouses.

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The fund also committed $50 to K5 Private Investors LP, a partner in its Emerging Manager Program within the private equity asset class. K5 will make control buyout investments in middle-market enterprise software companies in North America, and its strategy will focus on accretive mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and improved operation to accelerate revenue growth. Another $15 million was allocated to Primary Select Fund II LP, which will invest in later-stage high-growth technology and technology-enabled companies in the northeast US, particularly in New York.