Home > News > Alternatives > Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Approves $282.5 Million in Commitments to Four Alternatives Managers

AlternativesJune 4, 2024

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Approves $282.5 Million in Commitments to Four Alternatives Managers

Five commitments in total were approved to AUA Private Equity Partners, Inflexion, Sterling Group and H.I.G Capital Partners.

By Matt Toledo

The board of the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund approved $282.5 million in commitments to alternative investment managers at the fund’s May 30 board meeting, allocating the amount across four existing managers and five funds.

The first approved commitment was $50 million to AUA Private Equity Partners’ Private Equity Fund III, which focuses on investments in the lower middle market, targeting minority and family-owned business within the consumer products and consumer services industries.

The combined commitment pushes IMRF closer to its 2023 target of 11.5% to alternatives in the portfolio, which had $54.1 billion in assets under management as of March 31, 2024. The fund had $5.3 billion in alternative investments under AUM as of December 31, 2023, or 10.6% of assets in the portfolio.

The IMRF board’s other commitments were two funds from H.I.G Capital Partners, approving $100 million to H.I.G. Whitehorse Middle Market Lending Fund, a direct lending fund managed by Whitehorse, the direct lending arm of H.I.G, and $35 Million to buyout fund H.I.G. Capital Partners VII.

For more stories like this, sign up for the CIO Alert newsletter. 

The board of IMRF also approved 50 million pounds (or what it listed as $62.5 million) in commitments to Inflexion Enterprise Fund VI, which invests in lower middle market businesses across the U.K. Finally, $35 million in commitments was approved to Sterling Group Credit Fund III.

The fund allocates 36.3% of its portfolio to domestic equity, 19.2% to global equity, 23.9% to fixed income, 9.6% to private real assets, and 0.4% to cash equivalents.

Oman Investment Authority Returns 9.95% in 2023

The sovereign wealth fund saw its assets grow to $49.87 billion.

By Matt Toledo

The Oman Investment Authority, the sovereign wealth fund of Oman released its annual report on Tuesday, announcing a 9.95% return in calendar year 2023. The fund’s assets increased to 19.2 billon Omani rials ($49.87 billion) during the year.

The fund’s public markets assets grew at 9.8%, which the OIA notes were a result of strong returns from technology stocks and artificial intelligence.

The fund also announced many foreign direct investments, partnerships and allocation commitments, with many being in energy. The fund made direct investments in two businesses that make electrolyzers (devices that aid in the production of green hydrogen): the U.S.’s Electric Hydrogen and Australia’s Hysata. The fund also made an investment in Italian energy storage company Energy Dome.

The Oman Investment Authority was established in 2020, with the objectives of providing finances to the country’s budget and managing the assets of the sultanate by investing globally and funding the Omani’s ambitious Vision 2040 plan, which focuses on reducing its dependence on fossil fuels and promoting green energy sources. In 2022, the fund returned 8.8%.

Want the latest institutional investment industry news and insights? Sign up for CIO newsletters. 

The fund invests across two main portfolios, the Future Generation Fund, a program that invests in public and private market assets globally, and the National Development Portfolio, which aims to contribute to the state budget of Oman and the growth and development of the country’s economy.

The FGF had 7.065 billion OMR ($18.3 billion) in assets at the end of 2023, while the National Development Portfolio had 12.175 billion OMR ($31.6 billion).