San Diego City Employees returns -1.7% for fiscal year

San Diego City Employees' Retirement System returned a net -1.7% for the fiscal year ended June 30.

The $10 billion pension fund's return was well above the policy benchmark return of -5.7% for the period, according to a performance report on its website.

For the three, five and 10 years ended June 30, the pension fund returned an annualized net 7.2%, 7.5% and 8.5%, respectively, above the respective benchmarks of 6.9%, 7.2% and 8.1%.

SDCERS had returned a net 24.9% 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. However, among the 69 U.S. pension plans whose returns have been tracked by Pensions & Investments as of Thursday, San Diego City fell well above the median return of -5.1%.

The pension fund reported positive returns for private equity, real estate and infrastructure on a one-quarter lag. Among the asset classes that reported one-year returns ended June 30, the pension fund's opportunity fund asset class had the top return at 20.1% (well above its -14.6% benchmark).

The opportunity fund asset class consists of managed futures and opportunistic credit.

Also for the fiscal year ended June 30, domestic fixed income returned a net -8.3% (below its -7.9% benchmark); domestic equities, a net -9% (-14.2% benchmark); global equity, -14.8% (-15.8%); return-seeking fixed income, -19.8% (-20%); and international equities, -21.6% (-19.9%).

As of June 30, SDCERS’ actual allocation was 20.5% domestic fixed income, 18.5% domestic equities, 15.1% private equity, 12.3% international equities, 11.7% real estate, 8% global equity, 7.4% opportunity funds, 3.7% return-seeking fixed income and the rest in infrastructure.