Texas County Pension Commits $2.6B to Credit Strategies

The $58 billion Texas County & District Retirement System has committed $2.6 billion to strategic credit, direct lending and distressed debt so far this year, including $550 million in recent weeks.

Credit has drawn the most money of any strategy. Private equity has seen the most individual commitments, with 18.

The pension fund recently committed $300 million to Silver Point Silver Star Holdings, managed by Greenwich, Connecticut-based Silver Point Capital. The deal deepens a long relationship. TCDRS committed $300 million to Silver Point Tactical Credit Opportunities Fund in June and awarded the firm mandates in October 2025 and November 2024.

TCDRS also committed $250 million to Crescent (TX) Direct Lending Fund, a custom separately managed account run by Los Angeles-based Crescent Capital Group. The pension’s total commitments to the account now come to $800 million, dating to an initial $25 million in 2016.

Crescent has offered middle-market lending funds since 2005. Its latest flagship, Crescent Direct Lending Fund IV, recently closed with more than $5.5 billion in equity commitments, or about $10.8 billion including leverage and separately managed accounts.

TCDRS has committed roughly $1 billion to private equity this year. In September, it added $150 million across three funds. That included $30 million to New Enterprise Associates 19, which backs early-stage companies from seed through Series C. It also included $20 million to NEA 19 Venture Growth Equity, which writes larger checks to more mature startups. Both NEA funds invest in technology and health care.

The pension also committed $100 million to Spectrum Equity XI-A, which targets growth-stage software and data companies.

Credit makes up 29% of TCDRS’ portfolio, compared with 25% in private equity and 23% in public equities. The system returned 11.7% for the year ended June 30. Its credit portfolio returned 5.6%, and direct lending returned 6.5%.