By Muskan Arora
The $213.2B Washington State Investment Board disclosed private equity commitments of up to $1.2B, in line with its annual portfolio plans.
The board was informed of the staff-delegated allocations at its June investment meeting, said Tish Day, the pension fund’s spokesperson in an email to Markets Group.
During the meeting, Chris Hanak, WSIB’s chief investment officer, noted trade policy has been a key driver of volatility in the current environment, in addition to income tax changes and government debt levels.
“I pointed to trade policy, especially tariffs, mainly because they were very much tied with a lot of the equity market activity that we saw from day to day,” he said, in the meeting. “Our CTF benchmark provides a good example of the equity market volatility. It was higher by 5% in February and following the initial announcements of tariffs, it dropped down.”
WSIB’s consultant, Albourne America, recommended the plan allocate up to $100M to GTCR Capital Solutions Fund, a structured minority equity and debt fund focused on the U.S. market.
As well, the pension plan allocated up to $300M to Sixth Street Opportunities VI, a special situations investment fund. Since 2019, the plan has made six previous allocations to Sixth Street funds.
WSIB also disclosed commitments to TPG Partners X, a North America buyout fund, and TPG Rise Fund IV, a global impact fund, of up to $600M and $200M, respectively.
Its $172.2B commingled trust fund’s allocation to private equity was 29.2%, as of March 31.
The investment team is also adding commitments in the infrastructure space, allocating up to $300M to Stonepeak Infrastructure Fund V.
