Oregon Investment Council backs Morgan Stanley, RRJ funds
Oregon Investment Council (OIC) has committed $75 million to Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia’s (MSPEA) fourth pan-regional fund. The vehicle, which reached a first close of $750 million towards the end of last year after less than six months in the market, has a final target of around $1.5 billion.
OIC, which had $79 billion under management as of December 2012, has also invested $75 million in RRJ Capital Master Fund II.
MSPEA's fourth fund follows a similar strategy to that of its predecessor - which closed at $1.49 billion in October 2007 - pursuing a combination of minority and control investments in public and private mid-sized growth businesses. It primarily focuses on the consumer, financial services, industrial products sectors, as well as service-related businesses in general. The key geographies are China and South Korea.
Previous disclosed LP commitments include $25 million from The University of Michigan and $100 million from Pennsylvania Public School Employees' Retirement System (PSERS).
RRJ Capital, a Hong Kong-based GP set up by Richard Ong, formerly of Goldman Sachs and Hopu Investment Management, reportedly closed its second fund at $3.5 billion, having originally targeted $5 billion. Like its predecessor, the fund is expected to invest in Asia as well as in global natural resources assets that are strategically aligned with Asia's energy needs.
New York State Common Retirement Fund and Texas County & District Retirement System put in $300 million and $50 million, respectively. Other LPs are understood to include China Investment Corporation (CIC) and Temasek Holdings.
The OIC is responsible for investing all of State of Oregon funds, including the Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund (OPERF). As of March 2013, its private equity allocation was 22.6% against a target of 16%. The real estate and alternatives allocations were 11.9% and 0.9%, respectively.
OPERF had $61.6 billion under management at the end of 2012, with 23.7% of that deployed in private equity. KKR Asian Fund II and CDH Fund V are among its Asia-focused portfolio GPs.
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