OCERS Set to Top $750M PE Pacing Target; Tulare County Flags PE Allocation Gap

OCERS Set to Top $750M PE Pacing Target

Tulare County Flags PE Allocation Gap

Two recent pension meetings highlighted diverging stages of private markets buildouts: Tulare County Employees' Retirement Association is running behind its private equity and real estate targets, while Orange County Employees Retirement System expects to exceed its 2026 pacing plan.

Tulare County is running behind its private markets targets more than three years into a board-approved buildout, with the $2.46B pension carrying roughly a $50M gap to its private equity target and a $62M gap in value-add and opportunistic real estate. The fund is shifting away from legacy fund-of-funds and commingled vehicles toward direct commitments, adding four to six new GP relationships annually in each sleeve, while private credit – concentrated with Sixth Street – is at target.

Meanwhile, OCERS expects to exceed its $750M private equity pacing target for 2026 after committing $634M across 17 deals last year, with staff projecting a "robust" 2027 and flagging the next two years as potential watershed periods for real assets deployment. The $28B pension also approved an increase to its core real estate pacing to rebuild exposure that has drifted toward non-core strategies, and plans to launch an RFP for its investment consulting relationships by the end of September.

On the GP fundraising side, Javelin Venture Partners disclosed a $200M target for its sixth flagship fund, a step up from Fund V's $125M close in 2024; and GenNx360 Capital Partners closed its fourth flagship fund at $865M, the firm's largest to date, with New York State Common Retirement Fund and the City of Baltimore Employees' Retirement System committing $150M and $130M, respectively, according to Dakota data.

In people news, Heinz Endowments named John Barker, most recently CIO at the Kresge Foundation, as its new CIO, succeeding Edward Kolano; and City of Austin Employees' Retirement System is seeking a director of private equity to build out the 8% allocation the board approved in 2024.