Global pension funds continue to increase their allocation to private equity, with the top 20 global pension funds with the largest dollar allocation to private equity devoting a total of $707.6 billion to the asset class so far in 2024.

S&P Global Market Intelligence data revealed that the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) has the largest allocation at $143.9 billion, representing more than 24% of its total assets.

This was followed by the California Public Employees’ Retirement System with a $83.5 billion allocation and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System with $53.7 billion.

Overall, the data suggests that pension funds prefer to allocate to large, well-known private equity firms as Blackstone funds emerged as the most popular, followed by TPG Capital LP.

Though, CVC Capital Partners is CPPIB’s top fund manager based on the number of funds invested as CPPIB is invested across 14 CVC funds and has committed $5.7 billion of capital.

More than half of the funds to which CPPIB has committed capital are buyout funds. North America accounts for more than 44% of the total capital committed, while Asia comprises roughly 21% and Europe makes up about 17%.

Private equity firms also reported they expect an improved fundraising environment, however the timeline of this remains uncertain.

Rob Squire, senior key executive at CVC Capital Partners said:  “Many clients remain in what we would call a wait and see mode, given a combination of geopolitical uncertainty, market volatility and, of course, continued questions around interest rate movements,”

“This environment does make it harder to gain momentum, often requiring longer fundraising processes, which themselves are nonlinear and often more back-ended than we’ve seen in recent cycles.”

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