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Besting Peers, Penn Endowment Outperforms

With a neutral last 12 months, the Penn endowment has done what others couldn’t—it has maintained its capital base.

(November 12, 2009) – Besting many of its peers, the University of Pennsylvania endowment has maintained its capital base for the past year.


According to a report for the endowment’s Board of Trustees, the $5.6 billion fund has had 0% returns since November 2008—well above the negative losses seen at more prominent Ivy League endowments. While the fund was down 15.6% in the fiscal year ending in July, this is still well above the 25% losses seen at Harvard, Princeton, and Yale—and, since then, has recouped even these losses.

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“It’s hard to believe it’s flat from 12 months ago,” Trustee David Silfen is quoted as saying at the fund’s board meeting, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. “I’m also happy to report that the endowment has not experienced—unlike several peer institutions—any liquidity issues, and we have sufficient cash on hand to meet any capital calls and endowment payout well into the foreseeable future.”


The minimized losses are a result of a 10% reduction in public equities in early 2008, according to CIO Kristin Gilbertson. The lack of any liquidity crisis is the result of a 15% cash and Treasurys allocation, she added. The fund also attributes its lack of endowment-dependence for minimal layoffs.





To contact the <em>aiCIO</em> editor of this story: Kristopher McDaniel at <a href='mailto:kmcdaniel@assetinternational.com'>kmcdaniel@assetinternational.com</a>
Home > News > Newsmakers > While Others Go Home, Canadian Pension Plans Go Big
Newsmakers

While Others Go Home, Canadian Pension Plans Go Big

 

With a hostile bid for highway owner Transurban Group, Canada’s CPPIB and Ontario Teachers’ continue their direct investments in foreign assets.

 

(November 12, 2009) – Despite trepidation elsewhere, the $115 billion Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) and the $88 billion Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan are continuing their habit of direct private equity investments abroad.


 

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On November 5, the two funds joined forces in a CD$6.5 billion hostile bid for Transurban Group, which owns highways in Australia and the United States. While they together own 25% of the company, Transurban’s board rejected the offer, according to Canada’s Globe & Mail. However, the three parties are now in talks.

 



Also last Thursday, CPPIB and TPG Group made a $4 billion attempt on IMS Health, a Connecticut-based pharmaceutical information provider.

 



“We are uniquely positioned right now. We are among the few institutions in the world with the capability and the resources to take on complex, large private-equity transactions,” Mark Wiseman, Senior Vice President and Head of Private Equity at CPPIB, is quoted saying in the Globe & Mail.

  



This is not the first move by the CPPIB in Australia this year. Earlier, the fund paid upward of $1.5 billion for Macquarie’s communication network company, Macquarie Communications Infrastructure Group. “Australia and the U.K. have featured the most attractive infrastructure opportunities for the past two decades….Western Europe and North America rank well behind,” Wiseman told the Globe & Mail.



 




To contact the <em>aiCIO</em> editor of this story: Kristopher McDaniel at <a href='mailto:kmcdaniel@assetinternational.com'>kmcdaniel@assetinternational.com</a>

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