Despite downturn, CalPERS clocks 4.7% net return on investments

California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) has reported a preliminary 4.7 percent net return on investments for the 12-month period ending June 30, the pension fund said this week.

CalPERS assets at the end of the fiscal year stood at more than $389 billion.

Among the asset classes, real assets clocked a net return of 4.6 percent, despite significant market volatility.

The pension fund said its assets under management declined by some $70 billion in late February and March, however the CalPERS Public Employee Retirement Fund was able to recover nearly all of that value by the end of June.

“What started out as a health crisis turned into an economic crisis and severely affected investors everywhere, including CalPERS,” said Yu (Ben) Meng, CIO of CalPERS. “However, we’ve been doing the hard work of preparing for a downturn for some time. When it came, we were in a strong position to reduce its impact on our portfolio and take advanta