Louisiana Teachers' Retirement System, Baton Rouge, returned a net -7.7% for the fiscal year ended June 30.
The $24.3 billion pension fund's return for the period was well above its benchmark return of -11% for the period, according to a performance report posted on its website.
For the three, five and 10 years ended June 30, the pension fund returned an annualized net 8.1%, 8.4% and 9.3%, respectively, above their respective benchmarks of 5.5%, 6.7% and 8.2%.
The pension fund had returned a net 35.7% for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2021.
For the most recent fiscal year, the pension fund's negative return reflected a challenging market environment for public equities and fixed income.
Despite an actual allocation of nearly 50% to alternative assets and real estate, which chalked up a double-digit positive return, the pension fund's overall return fell below the median return of -5.2% among the 67 U.S. public pension funds tracked by Pensions & Investments as of Wednesday.
The pension fund's top performer was the alternative assets and real estate asset class, which returned a net 13.9% for the fiscal year ended June 30 (well above its benchmark return of -1.6%); followed by domestic fixed income at a net -10.1% (above its -10.3% benchmark); emerging markets debt at a net -10.2% (-19.3% benchmark); global real estate investment trusts, -11.9% (-13.4%); global fixed income, -15.7% (-15.3%); domestic equities, -22.5% (-13.9%); international developed markets equities, -29.1% (-17.8%); and emerging markets equities, -31.9% (-25.3%).
As of June 30, the pension fund's actual allocation was 48.9% alternative assets and real estate, 22.2% domestic equities, 9.8% international developed markets equities, 6.2% global fixed income, 4.7% domestic fixed income, 4% emerging markets equities, 1.6% cash and other, 1.5% global REITs and 1.1% emerging markets debt.
