Tag Archive: Yale Investments Office

  1. Endowment may have reached $21 billion

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    A recruitment email from the Yale Investments Office suggests the value of Yale’s endowment rose a couple billion dollars in the latest fiscal year.

    While the University has yet to release its endowment return for the 2013 fiscal year — a figure generally announced around the end of September — a Sunday email from a financial analyst in the Investments Office encouraged seniors to come to an information session about job opportunities and meet “the team that manages Yale’s $21 billion endowment.”

    As of June 30, 2012, the last date for which Yale reported the standing of its investments, the endowment was valued at roughly $19.3 billion.

    Provost Benjamin Polak told the News in mid-September that Yale’s investments had achieved a return in fiscal 2013 that was well above the University’s target of 7 percent. The figure in the recruitment email would fall in line with Polak’s projection: If accurate, the endowment has grown by roughly 8.8 percent last year through donations and investments returns, even after spending distributions have been taken into account.

    Most of Yale’s peer schools have yet to release their returns, though the University of Pennsylvania announced Thursday that its endowment posted a 14.4 percent return for fiscal year 2013.

  2. Investments Office director to manage Penn’s endowment

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    Peter Ammon GRD ’05 SOM ’05, a director for the Yale Investments Office, has been named the University of Pennsylvania’s next chief investment officer, Penn announced Tuesday.

    Ammon, who will assume his new position on July 1, has worked at Yale under Chief Investment Officer David Swensen since 2005. Swensen is widely credited for pioneering “the Yale model” for institutional investing, which emphasizes a diversified portfolio and increased investment in alternative asset classes. Penn has increased its allocations toward alternatives in recent years, according to the Daily Pennsylvanian.

    At the Yale Investments Office, Ammons oversees all marketable asset classes. His areas of focus have included absolute return, timberland and asset allocation.

    “Peter has an extraordinary track record and a sophisticated understanding of the opportunities and challenges confronting investors today,” said Penn Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli in a statement.

    Ammon will succeed Kristin Gilbertson, who stepped down from the CIO position in 2012. David Harkins, Penn’s managing director of public markets, has been serving as an interim CIO since Gilbertson’s departure.

    Ammon is currently a senior faculty fellow at the Yale School of Management, where he co-teaches a class on endowment management. He previously worked at the Princeton University Investment Company.

  3. Solar power company declares bankruptcy

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    A subsidiary of a Chinese solar power company highlighted in Yale’s 2009 annual investment report declared bankruptcy Thursday.

    The Yale Investments Office profiled Suntech Power Holdings Co. — once the world’s largest supplier of solar panels — in a two-page spread on “green investments in emerging markets” in 2009. It is not clear whether Yale still owns stocks in the company, but the University is not listed as one of the top 10 institutional investors on Suntech’s public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the 10th largest institutional investor listed owns only 0.55 percent of the company.

    Suntech defaulted on a $541 million bond payment last week, causing several cross-defaults on other loans and leading a group of bondholders to consider suing the company, according to The Wall Street Journal. Yale is not required to release information on whether the University holds specific companies’ debt.

    Suntech’s stock prices peaked at $85.16 in December 2007 and dropped precipitously during the financial downturn, to $1.88 in June 2012. Shares were valued at $0.44 as of Thursday.

    In the 2009 investment report, the Yale Investments Office noted potential challenges for the future of the solar industry because of the surge in the number of new solar cell manufacturers.

    “According to industry research, solar panel output is expected to increase 62 percent from 2008 to 2009, while installed panels are only expected to increase 10.5 percent,” the report said.

    Still, the 2009 report said that Shi Zhengron, the founder of Suntech, remained optimistic about his company’s long-term market position, and cited the company’s “culture of cost consciousness and innovation.”

    Though demand for new solar cells has continued to grow in China over the past few years, demand has declined in the rest of the world. The solar energy sector has suffered from overcapacity, according to the Financial Times.

    Yale’s endowment was valued at $19.3 billion as of June 30, 2012.