State to VCs: Time for a Paycut

CA Controller says VCs may need to reduce their fees to get CalPERS investment dollars.

Financial trends and news by Matt Bowman
July 13, 2009 | Comments (3)
Short URL: http://vator.tv/n/958

At a Churchill Club meeting in Mountain View on Thursday, Michael Moritz (Sequoia Capital, two-time Forbes’ Midas List overall winner) had California controller John Chiang in the hotseat for an hour to grill him on the state's finances.  When Moritz asked about pension funds, Chiang hinted that venture capital could see even less money than might be hoped from CalPERS and CalSTRS, two of the biggest limited-partner sugar daddies that fuel the Valley's VC firms.

In what appeared to be a bit of on-stage negotiating, Chiang intimated that many “alternative investments” were not “high quality,” and that the standard 2-and-20 fees typically doled out to fund managers (2% of the overall fund value plus 20% of the profits) would have to be re-evaluated.

In other words, if VCs, who as an asset class have performed poorly in the last decade, want a piece of California’s shrinking public funds, they’re going to have to take a serious paycut.

For just a moment, it looked like Moritz, not Chiang, was in the hotseat.

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3 comments

Lorenzo Carver
Lorenzo Carver, on July 13, 2009

That's a great piece Matt. Wow - "We're not defaulting we're renegotiating." That's a funny spin. They call it "committed capital" for a reason.

Signin to reply Lorenzo


Matt Bowman
Matt Bowman, on July 13, 2009

That's good isn't it? When you have $180B you can rewrite definitions :)

Signin to reply Matt


Comment_gbg
Blake Southwood, 293 days ago

Good stuff. I liked it.

Signin to reply Blake


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