The California Public Employees’ Retirement System is making a $1 billion wager that small private equity firms without the heft of the biggest buyout institutions can boost the pension giant’s returns and clout.
Calpers, the largest public pension fund in the US, will invest $500 million each with TPG Inc. and GCM Grosvenor to help launch funds backing up-and-coming private equity firms, pension officials said. Those funds could take stakes in smaller investment managers and direct money to those run by women and minorities, as well as offer seed funding to newer firms.
