CalPERS redeems from hedge fund portfolio

Date: Friday, June 10, 2011
Author: HFMweek

The $233.6bn California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), the largest public pension fund in the US, has made a series of redemptions from its hedge fund portfolio over recent months.

The pension’s most recent financial statements reveal that CalPERS withdrew a total of $40.3m from its Risk Managed Absolute Return Strategies (RMARS) programme in March, including a $35m partial redemption from the Wayzata Recovery Fund.

The move followed two months of significant redemptions, with RMARS withdrawals totalling $44m in January and $24m in February.

CalPers also received a number of ordinary course distributions made by funds managed by Canyon Capital Advisors, receiving $39.5m and $15.8m from the Canyon Special Opportunity Fund in January and February respectively, and $2.2m and $1.6m from the Canyon Value Realization Fund over the same two months

CalPERS currently allocates $5.5bn to hedge fund strategies, which are included in the pension’s global equity portfolio.