CalPERS: Greater Hedge Fund Commitment Not on Horizon

May 11, 2004 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Although an official at California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) said he is ready to recommend the fund step up its hedge fund holdings, a CalPERS spokesman said no change is imminent.

Spokesman Brad Pacheco said CalPERS investment officials still have a great deal of the fund’s November 2000 $1 billion hedge fund allocation to place, having committed less than two thirds of the total. “We have no intention of raising the hedge fund allocation anytime soon,” Pacheco told PLANSPONSOR.com.

Pacheco’s comments come after Chief Investment Officer Mark Anson told a recent magazine interviewer that he would ask the fund’s board to hike the plan’s hedge fund allocation to between 3% and 5% of the plan’s $105 billion global equity allocation.

Anson’s hedge fund investment thus far have returned 16.7% in 2003.

Since CalPERS allocation, other large public pension funds, such as the Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board and the Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System, have poured billions of dollars into hedge funds (See PRIM OKs Hedge Fund Foray ,   Keystone State Fund Ups its Hedge Fund Ante ).

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