Is NYS TRS a good PE investor?

by Michael Roth

Last week, PEHub had an article highlighting NY State’s fiscal year-end private equity returns. Whereas PEHub is unable to attribute the performance to any specific funds, Bison’s Investor Insights tool allows users to see where investors are putting money to work and how they are performing.

Below is a look at the average performance of the buyout funds New York State TRS has committed to since 1999.

Who are the standouts and the disappointments in New York State’s portfolio? Hellman & Friedman V is the pension plan’s top performing buyout fund in the last 10 years. Meanwhile, JC Flowers II has been a disappointment with a 0.41x net multiple.

Who is the savviest private equity investor? Bison’s tools enable users to figure out who the “smart money” is and where they are investing? The chart below illustrates the average buyout fund performance of New York State (green) vs. the Getty Trust (blue).

Where does Bison get this data? Bison aggregates fund performance information from hundreds of different LPs. Some LPs, such as New York State TRS, do not disclose fund performance details but that does not mean we cannot provide insights on how their portfolio is performing. In the instance of NYS TRS, Bison analyzes the funds they have invested in and presents the average performance for each fund based off the investment performance contributed by other investors.