The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) disclosed yesterday that for the first time that it had paid $3.4 billion since 1990 to the biggest private equity managers on Wall Street, including like firms like Carlyle, Blackstone and Apollo, the New York Times DealBook blog reported yesterday. CalPERS also said that it had made $24.2 billion in profits from private equity firms over the same period, according to its new data-collecting program, called Private Equity Accounting and Reporting. The move by CalPERS, the country’s biggest state pension fund, to disclose the details of its investment profit — called carried interest — could help to pave the way to more transparency in the private equity industry. The pension industry, under public scrutiny and faced with ballooning deficits and disappointing performance, is beginning to push for more transparency. For the first time, this year CalPERS will pay more money to retirees than it receives from its investments and contributions. Other state pension funds have fared far worse. In Pennsylvania, the state pension fund is facing a $50 billion shortfall, for example.
