Landmark launches co-investment fund with Texas ERS

The $26bn Employees Retirement System of Texas has closed 16 private equity co-investments since inception and six in fiscal 2014 alone.

Landmark Partners has launched a private equity co-investment fund with The Employees Retirement System of Texas, according to documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday.

Landmark declined to comment.

The firm is currently in market with its 15th private equity secondaries fund. The vehicle launched last year and has collected $3.2 billion, surpassing $2.5 billion target, according to PEI’s Research and Analytics division. Limited partners include the New Mexico State Investment Council, The Detroit General Retirement System and the Board of Regents State of Iowa.

A spokesperson from Texas declined to comment on the fund.

Between inception and 31 July 2014, Texas closed 16 private equity co-investments, including six in fiscal year 2014, according to its website. Landmark would be Texas’ first secondaries co-investment fund this year.

Texas’s investment policy allows it to commit up to $50 million in a private equity co-investment fund without board approval. The policy limits co-investments to 20 percent of the total private equity allocation. As of July, Texas had an 8.4 percent allocation to private equity.

Historically, secondaries funds have outperformed primary funds in Texas’ portfolio. Secondaries funds have generated net internal rate of returns of between 17 and 58 percent, Texas director of private equity Wesley Gipson told Secondaries Investor in August.

As of July, Texas had $26 billion of assets under management, according to its website.