CalSTRS Commits $4.2B to PE in H1; VCERA Ramps Private Credit

CalSTRS Commits $4.2B to PE in H1

VCERA Ramps Private Credit

California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS) committed $4.2B to private equity in the six months ended June 30, split between $2.7B across 15 partnerships and $1.5B across 14 co-investments, with all but one commitment – CapVest VI – representing re-ups. The largest tickets were $400M each to Francisco Partners VIII, Lone Star XIII, and Apollo Fund XI, as well as $500M to Blackstone's Strategic Partners X — C (Overage). CalSTRS' private equity portfolio stood at $56.4B, or 13.6% of total assets against a 14% target.

In recent pension board meeting updates, Ventura County Employees' Retirement Association is ramping up private credit to close the gap to its 10% target – the $10.2B plan's allocation stood at 7.9% at June 30 – with consultant NEPC directing new capital toward credit opportunities strategies including asset-based lending and flagging stressed and special situations investing and credit secondaries as key 2026 themes; VCERA approved $25M to Crayhill Principal Strategies Fund IV and $30M to Soho Square Capital Fund II.

At its own board meeting, Colorado's Fire & Police Pension Association launched an asset-liability study with Cambridge Associates, with a possible phased reduction to private markets exposure on the table even as the $10B plan builds out underweight real estate, infrastructure, and co-investment allocations and expands hedge funds through a $200M commitment to Millennium, its largest-ever hedge fund allocation. And Los Angeles Fire and Police Pensions heard from manager AEW Capital Management that it is looking to add one or two properties to its roughly $538M real estate separate account this fiscal year, with an industrial acquisition expected to close shortly.

In GP fundraising, Ares Management's secondaries business closed its inaugural Ares Global Structured Solutions Fund at $4.2B including affiliated vehicles, more than four times its $1B target;. and Silver Lake Partners registered its first perpetual capital strategy, Silver Lake Partners Evergreen, building on the 25-year deployment vehicle it launched with Mubadala in 2020.