The $20.16B Ohio Police and Fire Pension Fund has committed up to $130M to its private markets portfolio, signaling a growing appetite for infrastructure and private credit investments.
During the pension fund’s August investment meeting, the OP&F allocated $80M to the Meridiam Infrastructure North America Fund IV, a greenfield-focused, build-to-core strategy targeting a diversified portfolio of long-term contracted infrastructure projects across North America. The fund invests in sustainable mobility, innovative low-carbon solutions, and critical public services, including digital infrastructure.
Infrastructure continues to be a key focus within the OP&F’s real assets portfolio, which also includes agriculture and timberland assets. The real assets’ portfolio holds 6.4% or $1.3B of the total portfolio, against a long-term target allocation of 8%.
On the private credit side, OP&F committed $50M to the Crescent Direct Lending Levered Fund IV, deepening an existing relationship with the manager. The fund focuses on first-lien senior secured loans to U.S. private equity-backed companies in the lower-middle market.
The plan also holds exposure to the fund’s predecessor, Crescent European Specialty Lending Fund III, a direct-lending strategy targeting European mid-market companies. Investment sectors of the fund include consumer products, financial services, and medical technology, among others.
The Ohio P&F has allocated 3.3% or $666.6M of the total portfolio to private credit, below its target allocation at 5%.
For the one-year period ending June 30, 2025, the OP&F reported a gross return of 14.46%, positioning it among the top-performing U.S. public pension funds. Meeting materials noted the performance was driven by strong absolute returns in gold, midstream energy infrastructure, U.S. equities, and non-U.S. equities, along with strong relative performance from the fund’s equity managers versus their respective benchmarks.
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