UC regents committee reviews investment performance

The University of California Board of Regents’ Committee on Investments met Thursday afternoon to discuss the University of California’s investment performance for the first quarter of 2014.

The University’s new chief investment officer Jagdeep Singh Bachher said the UC had a “choppy quarter” in terms of its investment performance, although the long-term outlook has improved.

According to the performance summary, UC investments grew in value by 1.65 percent in the quarter, 0.23 percent below the historical benchmark. The UC’s annual return on investment over a 10-year period is 5.98 percent, 0.59 percent above the benchmark.

“There hasn’t been an shortage in opportunities,” Bachher said of long-term investment.

The summary said the market suffered losses in January due to concerns over emerging markets, although it rebounded after the Federal Reserve announced its plan to continue its low interest rates.

Regents urged Bachher to speak to endowment director at UC Riverside, whose investment portfolios have outperformed other campuses. Terry Dennison, the board’s general investment consultant, said this is because Riverside heavily invested money in public equity, which may leave its investment precarious to swings in public equity.

Regent Richard Sherman asked if individual campus’ endowments should be part of the UC’s endowment, given the UC’s 5-year returns outperformed that of all campuses. Regent Paul Wachter said while that is true, doing so may not be feasible as donors want to give money to individual campuses,

Compiled by Jeong Park, Bruin contributor. Contributing reports by Alex Torpey, Bruin contributor.