US$234B CalPERS backs several Canadian fund managers

Want to know how CalPERS is doing in the Private Equity and Venture Capital space? Thanks to the efforts of Fortune’s Dan Primack, all is now known. I’ll pulled off the returns of the Canadian fund managers as at Dec. 31, 2010, just to give you a flavour. All in all, CalPERS has US$50B of its US$234B under management exposed to the PE and VC sectors:

Birch Hill Equity Partners III (2005): $117M in, $172M in mark-to-market value; 14.6% IRR

Celtic House Partners III US$ (2005): $7M in, $7.4M in MTM value; 1.6% IRR

Bridgescale Partners (2006): $2.2M in, $2.1M in MTM value; -2% IRR

Ventures West VII US$ (2000): $5M in, $4.4M in MTM value; -2.5% IRR

Tricor Pacific (2006): $74.7M in, $70.6M in MTM value; -2.7% IRR

Bridgescale Partners (2006): $6.4M in, $6.1M in MTM value; -3.1% IRR

XPV Water Fund (2010): $0.6M in, $0.5M in MTM value; -14.4% IRR

The first thing to be in awe about is that several funds were able to secure a direct commitment from one of the largest U.S. pension funds. The second thing to reflect upon is that despite the fact that most of Canada’s largest pension funds have curtailed their fund management programs, these groups were still able to land a commitment from a recognized leader from outside Canada. The third thing to reflect upon is that CalPERS will do smallish direct Canadian VC commitments, whereas the CPP Investment Board, for example, won’t.

Lastly, don’t get too fussed about the return figures. Most funds deliver their value over 8 and 10 years, and those reporting a 5 or 6 year financial snapshot may have lots of latent value creation to come.

MRM
(note: there are two references to Bridgescale; that’s how the information is displayed; could be different Fund closing dates, different draw dates, a data entry error at Fortune or CalPERS….)