Maine Public Employees’ Retirement System is preparing to reduce its private equity allocation to 10%, as part of a broader effort to improve liquidity and reassess performance across its portfolio, according to a report by Buyouts Insider.
At a board meeting held on 12 March, the pension provider outlined plans to gradually lower its exposure to the asset class from its current 12.5% target, following an earlier decision to adopt the reduced allocation. The move marks the fund’s second downward adjustment in private equity weighting in recent years.
To align with the new target, Maine expects to scale back its annual commitments over time. While it plans to allocate more than $3bn to private equity in the current year, that figure is projected to decline to around $2.5bn by 2028, before stabilising.
The pension also signalled a more cautious approach to new commitments, citing continued weak exit activity and a slower distribution environment across the private equity market.
Alongside pacing adjustments, Maine is reviewing its relationships with fund managers. The pension noted that long-term returns from its private equity portfolio have underperformed internal benchmarks tied to public markets, prompting a renewed focus on manager selection.
As part of this shift, the fund intends to increase exposure to growth equity and venture capital strategies, while trimming its buyout manager base. It expects to reduce the number of buyout relationships by three to five in 2026, maintaining an overall roster of roughly 20 to 30 general partners.
Maine currently works with 28 private equity managers.
The pension also indicated it may explore secondary sales of private equity assets in limited cases, primarily to support liquidity or manage risk, though such transactions would only be pursued under exceptional circumstances.
