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Thursday, February 25, 2021

Watch the Regents' Investments Committee Meeting of 2-18-2021


The Regents' Investments Committee met last week on Feb. 18. As usual, yours truly has preserved the recording which the Regents discard after one year. The first part of the meeting was public comments by telephone. Topics discussed were fossil fuel divestment verification and a defense of the Hawaiian telescope. The second part was a review of recent financial market returns and investments.

It was the third segment that was most of interest. The Chief Investments Officer was seeking endorsement of a proposed policy for "private credit" investments. These appear to be investments by firms specializing seeking out "hot" investments in other new firms using other people's money. As is often the case, Regent Makarechian had the most critical questions, essentially involving the risk entailed. If the hot investments turn cold, it will be UC who is left holding the bag. It appeared under questioning that in fact UC had been investing in private credit all along within other categories and that the guidelines for how much of the portfolios of the various funds could hold were more or less already reached. In the end, however, the concept was approved.

The meeting can be watched at the link below:

https://archive.org/details/investments-committee-2-18-21

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