New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli announced today that the New York State Common Retirement Fund (Fund) has allocated $200 million to Pine Street Alternative Asset Management for opportunistic investments through its Emerging Manager Program. DiNapoli made the announcement during his address to attendees at the seventh annual Emerging Manager Conference in Albany today.
"I am pleased to welcome Pine Street as an investment partner for our Emerging Manager Program,”said DiNapoli. “This partnership will further expand the state pension fund’s pool of talented money managers, help boost the new opportunistic portfolio and position us for future growth.”
In 2011, DiNapoli fulfilled a commitment to expand the program making the Fund one of few state pension funds with an Emerging Manager Program in each of the major asset classes. To date, the Fund has committed more than $4 billion to the various investment classes including public equity ($2.5 billion), private equity ($1.5 billion), hedge fund ($200 million), real estate ($300 million) and opportunistic ($200 million).
“Pine Street is honored to partner with the New York State Common Retirement Fund to help increase access to the best investment talent in the emerging hedge fund space,”said Caroline Lovelace, partner and co-portfolio manager of Pine Street Alternative Asset Management. “We commend Comptroller DiNapoli's commitment to increasing opportunities for these emerging hedge fund managers, including women and minority-owned managers, while at the same time delivering strong returns to the Fund's bottom line.”
The annual Emerging Manager Conference is held in Albany and attracts attendees from across the country. Fund staff and investment partners meet with interested money managers to discuss the Fund’s operations, investment decisions and the investment monitoring process. For more information about the Emerging Manager Program, visit: http://osc.state.ny.us/pension/emerging/index.htm
About Pine Street Alternative Asset Management
Pine Street Alternative Asset Management LP provides seed and accelerator capital to emerging hedge fund managers, with a particular focus on the undercapitalized yet outperforming niche segment of women and minority owned hedge fund managers. The company was founded in 2011 and is located in New York City. It is a certified women and minority-owned investment management company whose principals average over a decade of experience in the hedge fund and alternative asset management space.
About the Common Retirement Fund
New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli is trustee of the New York State Common Retirement Fund, the third largest public pension plan in the United States with more than one million members, retirees and beneficiaries from more than 3,000 state and local government employers. The Fund has a diversified portfolio of public and private equities, fixed income, real estate and alternative instruments and has consistently been ranked as one of the best managed and best funded plans in the nation. Over the past 20 years, 80 percent of the cost of benefit payments has been funded by investment returns. The Fund’s fiscal year ends March 31, 2014.