LASERS Greenlights $225M to Private Equity 

The Louisiana State Employees’ Retirement System (LASERS) hired two new private equity managers in December with the objective of increasing its global investment strategies.   

A $125 million commitment was approved for a customized private equity co-investment portfolio managed by HarbourVest Partners, a firm that was very active in the continuation fund space last year, including a holding in research company Circana and another with Insight Partners for a $1.5 billion multi-asset continuation fund. HarbourVest also closed on $18.5 billion of new capital for its secondary funds in August.  

LASERS also approved a $100 million investment in BPEA Private Equity Fund IX, a buyout vehicle administered by EQT Private Capital Asia. EQT has established a target of $12.5 billion for its most recent Asian private equity fund. The strategy historically has targeted control investments in the region across healthcare, technology services, business services, education, financial services, consumer and advanced manufacturing services. 

The new allocations augment the pension fund’s private equity expansion, which includes a $100 million allocation to KKR North America Fund XIV in November. The buyout fund aims to acquire controlling interests in large North American enterprises across many sectors. 

The $15.8 billion system allocates 21.5% of its assets, around $3.4 billion, to private equity within its private markets exposure as of late September. The alternative investment portfolio, encompassing private equity and absolute return investments, yielded a return of 6.7% for the one-year period concluding in September.