Harvard Endowment Hit by $1 Billion Natural Resources Writedown
- Timberland, agriculture weighed on poor investment return
- CEO Narvekar seeks to restructure $37.1 billion endowment
Harvard University wrote down the value of its natural resources investments by $1.1 billion in the last fiscal year, contributing significantly to its poor endowment performance.
The university revalued the portfolio to $2.9 billion from $4 billion in the year through June 30, according to an annual report released Thursday. The writedown is part of an ambitious attempt to overhaul the $37.1 billion endowment and helps explain why the world’s richest school trailed in performance against its peers.