Anonymous wrote:Wait, but anyone could have told you the PE vintage 21/22 would lag with interest rates higher for longer.
Why didn't they start to unwind last year? HF and PE is 71%!!!

Whoa.

Hedge funds run the gamut of strategies. They can’t be grouped with PE. And they (mostly) have timely valuations.

The point in the letter is that the PE investments were not revalued down in 22, nor were they revalued up in 23 or 24, which explains their lag behind public equities. They may have still outpaced public equities, but with shrinking exit opportunities it is hard tell.

Wait, but anyone could have told you the PE vintage 21/22 would lag with interest rates higher for longer.
Why didn't they start to unwind last year? HF and PE is 71%!!!

Whoa.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of this info is available by Google. Bet someone can ask AI to create a list, with annotations to real links/sources?

https://www.spglobal.com/market-intelligence/en/news-insights/articles/2024/11/texas-harvard-endowments-lead-the-pack-in-private-equity-allocations-86225931

There's a good image in this link - can someone figure out how to post it here? Lists a bunch of schools.

This link shows Harvard with a 39% allocation in private equity, which a little more than half of what Ackman said it is. Furthermore, endowments are usually just reported publicly once a year. All of the institutions would have fluctuations from the last reported amount, not just those with private equity.

How much though to other alternative assets? Does the "private equity" include other types of non-liquid assets like: venture capital, infrastructure, real estate, private credit?

Here was the asset allocation in the Harvard Management Company letter last fall:

Public equities - 14%
Hedge funds - 32%
Private equity - 39%
Real estate - 5%
Bonds/TIPs - 5%
Other real assets (incl. natural resources) - 3%
Cash - 3%

Here’s what they had to say about it:

“HMC’s asset allocation has featured three interrelated portfolio moves over the last seven years. First, we reduced the exposure to real estate and natural resources from 25% of the endowment portfolio in FY18 to 6% today. This strategic reduction has had a positive and compounding impact on the University’s endowment returns. It has also created room for the second major portfolio shift, which is our significant increase in private equities. Public equity returns are often outpaced by private equity — both buyouts and venture capital. However, in FY24, for the second year in a row, private equity returns lagged those of
public equity markets. Readers will recall that in FY22, private managers did not reduce the value of their
investments in a manner consistent with declining public equity markets at the time. As presaged inthat year’s letter, those private asset managers did not subsequently increase the value of their investments in the context of rising public equity markets in fiscal years 2023 and 2024. Finally, we increased the size of the hedge fund portfolio as a means of limiting equity exposure (public and private, collectively) and, therefore, limiting portfolio risk.”

TLDR: Ackman is basically full of it. Or maybe half full of it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Heard an interview today with Bill Ackman, hedge fund manager, alum, and donor.

Harvard’s headline endowment is $53 billion, but 75% of that is in private investments, like private equity and venture capital, that aren’t regularly marked to market value and are not liquid. He estimated that market value is 30-40% lower than stated. Further, Harvard has $8 billion of debt. Apparently, the day-to-day operation of the overall enterprise is heavily dependent on government money and annual donations.

This reminds me that UChicago is in even worse shape.

How do these great schools with so many great minds mess this all up?

Bill Ackman has a little bit of an agenda, so I'd take his comments with multiple grains of salt.

My thoughts as well.

Schools which accept federal funding should be required to invest at least 60% in US government bonds.

Although Dartmouth College & Middlebury College have the highest percentage (40% and 40.6% respectively), they may have a lower dependence on federal funds than do Harvard, Michigan, & Yale.

Seems it was less than a week ago that the anti-Harvard crowd were talking about how Harvard is swimming in money and don't deserve any federal funding - not even for medical research. Now, suddenly, Harvard is on the verge of bankruptcy. You guys are nothing if not ridiculously inconsistent.

Harvard should strip Ackman’s degree very publicly and send him back the measly contributions he’s made. He’s a liability not worth having around.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Heard an interview today with Bill Ackman, hedge fund manager, alum, and donor.

Harvard’s headline endowment is $53 billion, but 75% of that is in private investments, like private equity and venture capital, that aren’t regularly marked to market value and are not liquid. He estimated that market value is 30-40% lower than stated. Further, Harvard has $8 billion of debt. Apparently, the day-to-day operation of the overall enterprise is heavily dependent on government money and annual donations.

This reminds me that UChicago is in even worse shape.

How do these great schools with so many great minds mess this all up?

Bill Ackman has a little bit of an agenda, so I'd take his comments with multiple grains of salt.

He is an idiot outside of his field of investing. He supported Trump not at all realizing the immense risks.

Wait, wouldn't multiple grains of salt be more serious than a grain of salt? Do you mean half a grain of salt?

Anonymous wrote:Heard an interview today with Bill Ackman, hedge fund manager, alum, and donor.

Harvard’s headline endowment is $53 billion, but 75% of that is in private investments, like private equity and venture capital, that aren’t regularly marked to market value and are not liquid. He estimated that market value is 30-40% lower than stated. Further, Harvard has $8 billion of debt. Apparently, the day-to-day operation of the overall enterprise is heavily dependent on government money and annual donations.

This reminds me that UChicago is in even worse shape.

How do these great schools with so many great minds mess this all up?

Harvard has long harbored antisemitic voices. That ugly, hateful, fact has been exposed.

Alumni have responded.

Anonymous wrote:Ackman is a complete idiot who inherited his money and managed to not to blow it all like Trump. His attempt to take his company public this summer went hilariously off track this summer. Worth reading about before touting anything he says.

Bumping

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of this info is available by Google. Bet someone can ask AI to create a list, with annotations to real links/sources?

https://www.spglobal.com/market-intelligence/en/news-insights/articles/2024/11/texas-harvard-endowments-lead-the-pack-in-private-equity-allocations-86225931

There's a good image in this link - can someone figure out how to post it here? Lists a bunch of schools.

This link shows Harvard with a 39% allocation in private equity, which a little more than half of what Ackman said it is. Furthermore, endowments are usually just reported publicly once a year. All of the institutions would have fluctuations from the last reported amount, not just those with private equity.

How much though to other alternative assets? Does the "private equity" include other types of non-liquid assets like: venture capital, infrastructure, real estate, private credit?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Heard an interview today with Bill Ackman, hedge fund manager, alum, and donor.

Harvard’s headline endowment is $53 billion, but 75% of that is in private investments, like private equity and venture capital, that aren’t regularly marked to market value and are not liquid. He estimated that market value is 30-40% lower than stated. Further, Harvard has $8 billion of debt. Apparently, the day-to-day operation of the overall enterprise is heavily dependent on government money and annual donations.

This reminds me that UChicago is in even worse shape.

How do these great schools with so many great minds mess this all up?

Bill Ackman has a little bit of an agenda, so I'd take his comments with multiple grains of salt.

+1 he created half the problems Harvard is facing

No, Harvard created the problems they are facing. Ackman pointed them out.