Gregory Roth
The giant Dutch pension manager Algemene Pensioen Groep, better known as APG, hired away Greg Jania from WP Global Partners, the Chicago-based funds-of-funds manager, to be its new head of fund investing and to help APG build out its in-house private equity capabilities following the sale of its stake in AlpInvest Partners, the prominent funds-of-funds manager. Jania had been with WP Global since 2005.
The Blackstone Group, the world’s largest private equity firm, is set to accelerate its plans to compete in an expanding sub-genre of private equity funds—those that make minority equity investments in leading hedge fund managers.
Summer Street Capital Partners, a private equity firm based in Buffalo, N.Y., announced a final close on its latest fund, Summer Street Capital III LP, attracting approximately $280 million in commitments, according to one of the firm’s managing partners, Michael McQueeney. The fund’s initial target was $250 million.
Alan Van Noord, who has directed investments for the Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System for more than a decade, has decided to retire in June. He will be replaced on an interim basis by James Grossman, Jr., deputy chief investment officer.
SAN FRANCISCO, February 12 - Welcome, private equity conventioneers! Those who thought, or hoped, that the heightened public scrutiny of private equity would fade following the presidential election, think again.
1. How many funds do you look at—first cut, second cut, final cut—in any given year? We generally think that for a U.S. portfolio, 35 to 40 funds is about as many as you need if you’re covering the whole landscape of early-stage venture, growth equity, buyouts and distressed. We generally try to invest that […]
For decades Cambridge Associates has been one of the world’s largest private-equity consultants to university endowments and other big investors. Now the firm will take over the management of entire institutional portfolios as well.
The $91 billion New York State Teachers’ Retirement System named John Virtanen as its new head of private equity, according to a spokeswoman for NYSTRS. Virtanen replaces Dhvani Shah, who left in late 2011 to become chief investment officer at the $28 billion Illinois Municipal Retirement System.
Among the seven nations with the world’s largest pools of pension assets, alternatives such as private equity accounted for 19 percent of allocations in 2012, according to recent study of global pensions from Towers Watson, the financial consultancy. In the United States, alternative assets accounted for an even higher portion of assets—20 percent. That represents a huge increase in alternatives overall, which accounted for just 5 percent of all pension assets—globally and in the U.S.—as recently as 1995, according to the firm.
Commonfund Capital, the for-profit alternative investment unit of Commonfund, a non-profit Wilton, Conn.-based investment manager that serves foundations, pensions and other institutional investors, has hired Tim Yates and David Jansen to senior positions, according to Keith Luke, a managing director at the firm.