Florida SBA commits $675m to private equity

The Florida State Board of Administration committed $674.50 million (£445.24 million; €602.42 million) to eight private equity funds during the first quarter of 2015, state spokesman John Kuczwanski confirmed to Private Equity International.

SVB Asset Management's Strategic Capital Overage Fund received the biggest commitment of $125 million, followed by Encap Energy Capital Fund X and TPG Growth III, which received $100 million each. Both Encap and TPG held a final close last month on $6.5 billion and $3 billion, respectively. SVB Capital had raised $330 million for its Strategic Investors Fund VII in September, according to PEI's Research and Analytics division.

Other funds that received capital include technology-focused Francisco Partners IV, Insight Venture Partners IX and Siris Partners III, each of which pocketed $75 million. SBA also committed $70 million to European middle-market fund Equistone Partners Europe Fund V and $54.5 million to Fairview Special Opportunities Fund II.

In addition to these private equity funds, Florida committed capital to three global equity funds, three real estate funds and four strategic investment funds.

“Private equity, strategic investments and real estate are currently under their target weights,” Kuczwanski said, “so it is expected that those asset classes will be where most of our new commitments will occur in the future.”

The total estimated current value of the Florida Retirement System Pension Fund, managed by SBA, is $151.6 billion, according to Kuczwanski, and total assets under management are $185.3 billion.

Last year SBA committed $2.06 billion to 26 funds, including $1.38 billion to eight private equity funds in the third quarter. It has committed $6.90 billion in capital to date.