Texas Pension With $40 Billion to Hire Private Markets Investors

(Bloomberg) -- Texas Municipal Retirement System is hiring three investment staff as it looks to expand direct investment capabilities in private markets, according to Yup Kim, chief investment officer of the $40 billion pension fund.

Philip Hunter O’Brien will join as a managing director and head of private equity, Kim said in a statement. O’Brien, who previously led technology and consumer direct private equity investments for Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec, will also sit on the staff investment committee.

Amol Deshpande is joining as a managing director and head of direct investments, and will also be on the staff investment committee. He was previously a managing director and member of the management committee of health-care technology investment firm Redesign Health.

Isidora Stankovic will join as director of private equity from Searchlight Capital Partners, where she was on the private equity team in London, according to the statement.

TMRS, which invests on behalf of employees in more than 900 cities, had about $40 billion in assets under management as of March 31, according to an investment report. The fund had a one-year return of 11.62%. Private equity investments were 11.5% of the portfolio and private debt was 11.8% as of March 31, below the investment policy allocation of 13% for each of the two asset classes.

State pensions have taken varying approaches to private markets investing as distributions to investors from private equity firms remain low. Some funds, such as Teacher Retirement System of Texas, have cut back from private equity, while others, including Alaska Permanent Fund Corp., have increased their allocations.

--With assistance from Dawn Lim.

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