By David G. Barry

The Teacher
Retirement System of Texas (TRS) committed just over $800 million in
September, two-thirds of it going to two private equity funds and a real estate
fund.

TRS’ biggest investment was $250 million to Clayton, Dubilier & Rice Fund
XII, L.P. – one of three private equity funds that it backed. It also
committed $150 million to Thoma Bravo Discover Fund IV, L.P. and $25
million to Distributed Global Ventures III LP. Thoma Bravo and
Distributed Global are new relationships for TRS.

The $184.4 billion system’s second-biggest investment in September was $200
million to PCCP Clipper Venture II, LP, which was described as an
“opportunistic” real estate fund.

The remaining $175 million was deployed into five energy, natural resources,
and infrastructure (ENRI) funds. – $75 million of it going into an EIV
Capital fund. TRS also put $52.6 million into a Goldman Sachs & Co.
fund, $25 million into a co-investment vehicle from Energy Capital Partners
Management and $24.8 million into two funds from Global Infrastructure
Management, LLC.

As was presented earlier this summer at a TRS investment committee meeting,
the system is looking to commit approximately $2.5 billion in 2022 to ENRI. In
2021, it deployed $1.3 billion.

For the fiscal year ended June 30, TRS posted a negative 2.3% return, beating
its benchmark of negative 3.8%.