By Muskan Arora

The $98.6bn University of California has a
net return of 12.2% and its $22.6bn general endowment pool has returned net
11.7% for the fiscal year ended June 30.

As per a press release on August 1, the
pension funds’ five and ten years returns were 7.9% and 6.9%, whereas the
general endowment pool returned 9.4% and 8.1% respectively.

The pension fund and the endowment pool had
returned net 10.15 and 8.2% for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2023.

The latest gains bring the total investment
portfolio to $180 billion, a $16 billion increase over the previous year.

“This past fiscal year was about investing
only in what we fully understand and taking full advantage of low-fee index
funds guided by what we call the UC Investments Way,” said CIO Jagdeep Singh
Bachher, in the press release.

“Our biggest single gain in 2023-2024 came
from our investment in the S&P 500 index without tobacco or fossil fuels,
which made the University $1.3 billion,” said Bachher.

The system’s second-biggest gain came from
real estate and data centers which earned $1.2bn for UC.

When the rest of the world was focused on
China, Bachher started investing in India and in the past fiscal year saw those
assets shot up as high as 42%.

The UC Endowment,
which comprises the General Endowment Pool and the Blue and Gold
Endowment Pool, stood at a combined $29.5 billion as of June 30, 2024, up from
$23.4 billion the year before.

The UC
Retirement Savings Program, the nation’s second largest public defined
contribution plan behind the federal government, stood
at $39 billion as of June 30, 2024

The UC
pension stood at $98.6
billion as of June 30, 2024, up from $88.3 billion the year before.

UC Working Capital, which comprises the Total Return Investment Pool and the Short-Term Investment Pool, stood at a
combined $12.8 billion as of June 30, 2024, down from $18.7 billion the year
before. 

Full fiscal year performance will be
presented at the UC board of Regents’ investment meeting on September 19.