Secondaries was second-best performing strategy for Florida SBA

Secondaries funds were the second-best performing strategy for the State Board of Administration (SBA) of Florida, which has invested in Ardian, Lexington Partners and Pantheon funds.

Since inception, the strategy had delivered a 16.6 percent internal rate of return (IRR) as of 30 September for the state pension manager, according to documents from its investment advisory council’s 30 March meeting. This was higher than the SI Cambridge Benchmark for secondaries of 16.4 percent.

Only distressed/turnaround strategies performed better, at 17 percent.

Tallahassee-based SBA also stated it would consider using the secondaries market to dispose of closed-end funds and would review options to enhance its portfolio through secondaries, according to the documents.

The pension manager committed to two secondaries funds last year including Ardian’s ASF VII and Lexington Partners’ Lexington Capital Partners VIII (LCP VIII), a spokesman confirmed. This comprised $150 million to ASF VII and $500 million to LCP VIII, a spokesman for SBA confirmed.

SBA has been an active seller on the secondaries market. The pension manager last year sold a portfolio of fund stake interests to Lexington worth between $500 million and $1 billion as well as a legacy portfolio worth around $350 million to Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Park Hill advised on both deals.

SBA had $180 billion in assets under management as of 30 June according to its latest annual report.