New York State Teachers commits $75m to ABRY

The New York State Teachers Retirement System has committed $75 million to ABRY Senior Equity Fund III, which has raised $750 million to provide senior equity and mezzanine capital.

ABRY has reached its goal of $750 million for the third fund, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm invests in media, communications, business and information services.

ABRY was founded in 1989 and has completed more than $21 billion of leveraged transactions and private equity investments.

New York Teachers, which had assets of $98 billion at the end of 2008, earlier this year promoted Dhvani Shah to the newly created executive level position of managing director of private equity. The pension hired Shah from Bank of America, where she worked as a vice president on private equity transactions.