CalPERS May Disclose More Data

CalPERS, the nation’s largest public pension fund, said it is considering disclosing more information about its private equity investments.

It would be a policy reversal opposed by the fund’s venture capital partners, which shun such scrutiny.

The 13-member board of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System on Monday accepted a staff recommendation that calls on the fund to take a leading role in establishing an industry standard for reporting of private equity data.

Until now, CalPERS -- which has long been a vigorous advocate of market transparency -- had resisted making public the individual rates of return on private equity investments, partly on the grounds that the information contained trade secrets.

That refusal sparked a lawsuit by the San Jose Mercury News to force the pension giant to make public the returns on its $7-billion private equity portfolio.

Last month, a judge ordered CalPERS to disclose its returns on the portfolio unless it could show that the information in fact contained trade secrets.

CalPERS spokesman Brad Pacheco said the board accepted the staff’s suggestion that it lead other funds in figuring how best to report data on private equity investments.

Venture capital firms historically have worked in secret, limiting information on their returns and their fees to investors or potential investors.

In part, the venture firms fear that their efforts to buy into promising private companies at good prices could be compromised if information about their activities is widely disseminated.