{"text":[[{"start":9.68,"text":"The chief investment officer of New York City’s biggest pension plan has slammed private equity firms for a “steady creep” higher in fund expenses, including the use of private jets."}],[{"start":20.48,"text":"Monte Tarbox, chief investment officer of the New York City Retirement Systems, told the FT that last week he was asked by an unnamed private equity firm to underwrite the costs of private jet trips by employees, arguing that this was something that should be covered by ordinary investor fees."}],[{"start":36.453,"text":"“It’s little things like that I have seen accumulate over time . . . it makes me grouchy and undermines my confidence about whether the [general partners] really have our interests at heart or not,” he said at the FT Future of Asset Management North America conference in Boston."}],[{"start":51.437,"text":"The New York City Retirement Systems is one of the world’s largest pension pots, managing $326bn for workers including the city’s teachers, police and firefighters."}],[{"start":62.015,"text":"Tarbox linked the worsening terms to the influx of retail money in private equity, which is beginning to dislodge large institutional investors such as pension funds as the key partner to private equity firms."}],[{"start":73.12,"text":"“I am losing confidence that they are keeping us at the core of their strategic operations, and I’m losing confidence in their claims that they are not just out to gather assets,” he said, referring to the private equity industry."}],[{"start":85.58,"text":"Tarbox warned that retail funds carried a “liability mismatch” — since private equity commitments are generally long term but retail investors often seek to access their holdings over shorter time periods — and predicted “a crisis to come in the not too distant future”."}],[{"start":100.134,"text":"Institutional investors, by contrast, try to match up assets with liabilities and generally make allocations over long horizons."}],[{"start":108.4,"text":"The private equity industry argues that it is giving retail investors access to a strategy that has historically been the preserve of large institutions, offering diversification and a record of strong returns."}],[{"start":118.8,"text":"Many of the private capital industry’s largest firms, such as Blackstone and KKR, are seeking to lure wealthy individual investors as a source of their growth, building large private-equity funds targeting such investors."}],[{"start":131.773,"text":"Partners Group, the pioneer in managing private equity funds for individual investors, has in recent months suffered investor redemptions from its flagship retail alternatives funds."}],[{"start":142.061,"text":"Earlier this month, Partners Group separated a portfolio of poor-performing PE bets from newer deals with a better outlook in a surprise manoeuvre that came after the fund began limiting investor redemptions."}],[{"start":158,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1792467349_3137.mp3"}