Public and corporate pension fund executives expect private equity to be the best performer among asset classes over the next five years, according to a Greenwich Associates survey.
Public fund executives forecast an annualized 11.3% return from their private equity portfolios, while corporate plan officials expect an average annualized return of 10.1%.
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The California State Teachers’ Retirement System is considering increasing its private equity allocation by 3 per cent.
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New York State Common Retirement Fund, Albany, hired Parish Capital Advisors and Bank of America to run a combined $550 million for the plan’s emerging manager private equity program, said Robert Whalen, a spokesman for state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, the fund’s sole trustee.
Parish Capital will run $350 million — $250 million for co-investment opportunities and [...]

State Street Corporation (STT), the world’s leading provider of financial services to institutional investors, announced today that assets under administration serviced by its private equity fund team grew by 60 percent in 2008. State Street now provides full-service fund administration services to more than 400 primary funds and more than $138 billion in assets.
“Even with [...]

The $2.7 billion Fresno County (Calif.) Employees Retirement Association is looking to ramp up its private equity commitments while pacing and potentially decreasing its 9% allocation to hedge funds.
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In hard times, the banks are known to shut their doors to small businesses looking for capital. But a Toronto financial expert says there’s a window of opportunity for entrepreneurs looking for growth capital now, but it may not be open long.
The source is U. S. private equity investors — not a group you would [...]

By Shrija Agrawal (VCCircle.com)
The survey in a way corraborate what is going on in the market as several fund of funds closed Asia funds.
India, China and Central & Eastern Europe have firmly established themselves as the most attractive regions for private equity, said a survey of limited partners conducted by the Almeida Capital, a UK [...]

Private investors noted the advantages currently received by foreign investment funds.
The Israel Tax Authority plans to exempt Israeli private equity funds from taxes due on the funds’ investments in Israel. The decision followed a meeting between Tax Authority officials and managers of the private investment funds in Israel.
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There was ammunition for supporters and critics in yesterday’s report from the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (BVCA) on the performance of private equity portfolio companies.
Supporters say the report knocks down several charges levelled against the private equity industry at the height of the credit boom, when bosses of big buy-out houses were [...]

Private-equity firms have more than $1 trillion available for deal making this year after the industry achieved the second-highest level of fund raising on record last year.
Private-equity firms held final closes for 768 funds last year, raising $554 billion, according to research group Preqin. The new funds raised supplemented the uninvested capital available from earlier [...]