CalPERS agrees to disclose investment of funds

Thursday December 19, 2002

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) The California Public Employees' Retirement System has agreed to publicly disclose its private equity investments, the San Jose Mercury News reported Thursday.

The move is part of a settlement with the Mercury News, which sued the organization to go public with the results of its investments.

The settlement is a victory for a better-informed public regarding the more than $20 billion in investments made by CalPERS, the newspaper said.

``This suit changed how the state does business and we're pleased to see CalPERS moving toward disclosing information that Californians have a right to know,'' Mercury News Executive Editor David Yarnold said.

CalPERS provides retirement and health care benefits to more than 1.3 million current or former state employees and 2,500 employers. It is one of the world's largest investors with $135.1 billion invested in real estate, bonds and stocks.

``Ending this lawsuit frees us to work proactively on developing an industry standard for private-equity reporting that allows us to do our fiduciary duty and provide maximum transparency,'' said CalPERS board President William Christ.

In the past, CalPERS withheld investment performance information, saying disclosure threatened future transactions.

The CalPERS case and another like it at the University of Texas in September triggered a nationwide debate about how much the venture capital industry should be forced to open its books.

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On the Net:

http://www.calpers.ca.gov/

(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)