Texas County & District commits $50m to Baring Asia fund
Texas County & District Retirement System (TCDRS) has committed $50 million to Baring Private Equity Asia’s sixth pan-regional fund, which recently reached a first close of $3.2 billion.
The pension system, which had $24.5 billion under management as of June 2014, invested $40 million in Baring Asia's previous fund. Earlier this year, it also allocated $40 million to the private equity firm's first dedicated regional real estate vehicle, which is looking to raise $500 million.
Baring Asia Private Equity Fund VI has already exceeded its initial target of $3 billion. AVCJ was previously told that the vehicle has a hard cap of $3.85 billion, not including the GP contribution. Fund V closed at $2.46 billion in January 2011, beating its original target of $1.75 billion after just six months in the market.
Other disclosed investors in Fund VI include Pennsylvania Public School Employees' Retirement System (PSERS) - also an LP in Baring's previous three funds - which has committed $100 million, and San Francisco City & County Employees' Retirement System, which is putting in up to $50 million. The Arizona Public Safety Personnel Retirement System is investing $20 million.
TCDRS had 8% of its assets - or $1.97 billion - deployed in private equity as of June. The target allocation is 12%. It had a further $603 million in distressed debt, $408 million in private real estate, $2.2 billion in opportunistic credit, and $6 billion in hedge funds.
The private equity portfolio had generated a one-year annualized return of 22%, trailing only global equities, US equities and developed market international equities. The return on both a three-year and a five-year basis was 13.4%.
Baring Asia is not TCDRS' only pan-regional portfolio GP. The pension system also committed $50 million to The Carlyle Group's fourth Asian fund, which closed earlier this year at $3.9 billion, while last year it allocated $50 million to RRJ Capital's second fund, which closed at $3.5 billion.
For China specifically, TCDRS invested $50 million in CDH Investments' fifth US-dollar denominated fund and $30 million in Legend Capital's most recent venture capital fund. The two vehicles both closed earlier this year at $2.55 billion and $500 million, respectively.
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