The University of California’s Office of the Chief Investment Officer (UC Investments) announced today (Sept. 16) that its assets under management stood at $152.3 billion as of June 30, 2022, down from $168 billion a year ago. Since 2014, however, the portfolios have grown by $57.4 billion, or 60.5%.
The University’s investment portfolios are spread across six unique financial products, each of which addresses the needs of UC students, staff, retirees, and the 10 campuses and five medical centers.
“Throughout this rollercoaster of a year, UC Investments has done the slow, steady work of keeping our financial house in order,” said President Michael V. Drake, M.D. “And they’ve done so while deepening the ‘service mentality’ relationships they have with our campuses and embarking on a groundbreaking effort to make diversity, equity and inclusion a central part of how — and with whom — we invest.”
“This fiscal year tested investors throughout the world,” added Chief Investment Officer Jagdeep Singh Bachher, Ph.D. “We took it in stride at UC Investments. We kept to our plans and even in a negative market, were again able to add value to University of California portfolios.”
Bachher said a key goal of the fiscal year was advancing diversity, equity and inclusion. “Investing with diverse managers is certainly not new to us — we’ve already invested $18 billion, or 33%, of our actively managed assets — but we eagerly undertook a new challenge of meeting an additional 100 firms led by women and people of color. Our six-month goal was to find future investment partners, to learn from each other, and expand our network even wider. We beat that goal by almost three months and made initial investments in two of these firms that were raising their first funds. We anticipate making more.”
Said UC Regent Richard Sherman, chair of the Investments Committee, “The credo of being long-term investors is to ride out the challenging times, because no one is smart enough to be a perfect market timer. That said, we actively tweaked things to be opportunistic. That’s how we add value to UC portfolios.”
The General Endowment Pool stood at $18.2 billion as of June 30, 2022. The 30-year annualized net return was 9%, the 20-year return was 7.9%, the 10-year return was 9.1%, the five-year return was 8.9%, and the one-year net return was negative 7.6% (1.4% over the benchmark).
The UC pension stood at $81 billion as of June 30, 2022. The 30-year annualized net return was 8.3%, the 20-year return was 6.8%, the 10-year return was 7.6%, the five-year return was 6.2%, and the one-year net return was negative 10.8% (flat to the benchmark).
The UC Retirement Savings Program stood at $30 billion as of June 30, 2022. As was previously done in the pension, endowment, and working capital, UC Investments made the Retirement Savings Program fossil-free. To further democratize green investing, UC Investments also invested $300 million in two ETFs offered by State Street Global Advisors that are aligned with the Paris climate accords. “We hope this seed investment will help open the door to others who, like us, believe that clean energy will fuel the world’s future,” said Bachher.
The UC Blue & Gold Pool stood at $2.2 billion as of June 30, 2022. The one-year net return was negative 15.2% (0.2% over the benchmark).
The UC Total Return Investment Pool stood at $11.7 billion as of June 30, 2022. The 13-year annualized net return was 6.5%, the 10-year return was 5.3%, the five-year return was 4.0%, and the one-year net return was negative 11.3% (0.2% over the benchmark).
The UC Short-Term Investment Pool stood at $9.1 billion as of June 30, 2022. The 25-year annualized net return was 3.2%, the 20-year return was 2.5%, the 10-year return was 1.4%, the five-year return was 1.3% and the one-year net return was 0.2% (0.1% below the benchmark).
Members of the UC Board of Regents will discuss UC Investments’ 2021-2022 fiscal year performance during the September 20, 2022, Investments Committee meeting, which will be held at UC San Diego and open to the public. It will also be livestreamed from the UC Regents website. More detailed information on performance results can be accessed here.