LA Fire to Commit up to $400M this Year

The $12.5 billion Los Angeles Fire & Police Pensions intends to commit between $200 million and $400 million this year to private equity as it makes its way toward a 10% target to the asset class, Chief Investment Officer Tom Lopez told Buyouts magazine, a VCJ sister publication.

The limited partner is not looking at any particular sub-strategies, Lopez says. As of March, the pension’s actual allocation to private equity was 5.8%, or $752.6 million, with an allowable range of 8% 12 percent.

LA Fire & Police recently hired Portfolio Advisors as a private equity consultant to take the place of Aldus Equity Partners, which was fired last year in the wake of a pay-to-play scandal involving alleged kickback schemes with New York and New Mexico pension funds.

In March, LA Fire & Police considered pledges totaling $50 million to two mid-market buyout funds, but decided not to vote on the commitments until it had hired a private equity consultant. Under consideration were a $25 million pledge to Houston-based Sterling Group LP’s Sterling Group Partners III LP and a $25 million pledge to Stone Point Capital’s Trident V.

Last year, despite the turmoil caused by the Aldus Equity fiasco, the LP managed to commit more than $150 million to various buyout funds, including $23.5 million to Odyssey Investment Partners Fund IV LP and $30 million to Ares Corporate Opportunities Fund III LP.—Nancy Gordon