Ohio Schools collects $196m on secondaries sales

The Ohio School Employees Retirement System has sold a portion of its private equity portfolio on the secondaries market, collecting $196.4 million, a pension spokesperson told Private Equity International.

The $10.5 billion pension closed the first sale in April and the final sale in mid-May, the spokesperson said. UBS brokered the secondaries sales, the spokesperson said.

Ohio Schools’ actual allocation to private equity as of 31 March, 2011 was 9.4 percent, and its target was 10 percent, with a range of 5 percent to 15 percent. It’s unclear how much the actual allocation dropped after the secondaries sales.

Public pensions have been using the secondaries market this year to trim back the number of general partner relationships in their portfolios. New Jersey hired Cogent earlier this year to help sell as much as $1 billion worth of its private equity portfolio. The California Public Employees’ Retirement System, North Carolina’s state pension, Ohio’s state employees’ pension and New Mexico’s state oil and gas endowment have or are trying to sell private equity stakes on the secondaries market.

Ohio School’s private equity portfolio was worth $1 billion as of 31 March, according to pension documents.

At its meeting earlier this month, the pension committed €30 million to Bridgepoint Development Capital I, a vehicle launched this year with a £300 million target. Ohio Schools has a prior investment of €30 million with Bridgepoint Europe IV made in 2007. The pension board also approved committing $25 million to Linsalata Capital Partners VI, a re-up as the board committed $50 million to two prior Linsalata funds.

The board also authorised a commitment of €30 million to The Fifth Cinven Fund, also a re-up for the pension. Cinven is reportedly targeting €5 billion for the fund. The firm closed its fourth fund in 2006 on €6.5 billion.