Industry Updates

CalPERS seeds global macro hedge fund Breton Hill Capital with $100m

Thursday, September 22, 2011

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Joseph A. Dear Opalesque Industry Update – The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) has invested $100 million in seed money with Breton Hill Capital, a Toronto-based global macro hedge fund with investments in equities, commodity and financial futures, and currencies.

The investment, part of the CalPERS Absolute Return Strategies program, is CalPERS first seed investment with a hedge fund manager. The pension fund also has approximately $500 million invested with customized funds of hedge funds focusing on emerging managers.

“The Breton Hill investment continues our efforts to source best-in-class investment talent,” said Joseph Dear, CalPERS Chief Investment Officer. “Our agreement creates a strong alignment of interests between CalPERS and Breton Hill, and our seed investment will add value to our portfolio as Breton Hill successfully executes its strategy.”

Breton Hill’s investment approach is based on using momentum to earn risk-adjusted returns not just in equities but in a variety of asset classes. The firm employs tactical capital allocation, security selection and an active approach to portfolio risk management to improve risk-adjusted returns.

CalPERS launched its Absolute Return Strategies program in April 2002 and had $5.3 billion invested in it as of June 30, 2011.

Press release

CalPERS is the nation’s largest public pension fund with approximately $224 billion in market assets. It administers retirement benefits for 1.6 million active and retired State, public school, and local public agency employees and their families and health benefits for more than 1.3 million members. The average CalPERS pension is $2,220 per month.

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