Amitim, the group of eight old pension funds supervised by Yael Andoran, is continuing to expand its investments overseas through specialist investment managers and private equity funds. As part of this policy, the group recently agreed to a $200 million investment over three years in private equity fund US Partners Group.
Partners Group has $17 billion in funds, and it will act as a gatekeeper on behalf of Amitim, making investments on its behalf in leading funds in Europe such as BC Partners, CVC Capital Partners, and Permira. Private equity is one of the preferred alternative investment instruments among institutional investors in Israel. It is an instrument that is becoming increasingly important for large institutional investors seeking to diversify their investment portfolios. One of Partners Group's clients is The California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS).
For the old funds (founded before January 1, 1999), investing in investment funds will also diversify their portfolio geographically, by increasing the volume of the assets managed on their behalf overseas, that are not affected by the state of the local market.
Eight pension funds completed their merger into one entity - Amitim - in February, creating Israel's largest institutional investor, with NIS 134 billion under management as of the end of 2007.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 5, 2008
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