Yale fund ROI: 4.7 percent
Yale University’s endowment fund earned a 4.7 percent return on investments for the 2012 fiscal year ending June 30, while dropping roughly $100 million in total value to $19.3 billion.
The endowment will produce more than $1 billion in funding for Yale’s current fiscal year, or 36 percent of the New Haven institution’s net revenues.
Yale released its endowment returns two weeks after David Swensen took a leave of absence as chief investment officer to be treated for cancer. Swensen has led Yale’s endowment since 1985, when it was valued at $1.3 billion.
“Thanks to the outstanding work of the investments office, Yale has derived maximum benefit from the generosity of its donors during challenging economic times,” said Richard Levin, Yale’s president who is stepping down next year, in a prepared statement. “Our successful investment record over the last two decades has helped the university achieve ambitious goals that have greatly enhanced our ability to provide superb education for our students.”
Yale said its endowment has generated returns of 13.7 percent annually on average over the past two decades, compared to an 8.7 percent average for other universities and colleges.
Yale”™s investment portfolio includes:
- private equity, 35 percent;
- real estate, 22 percent;
- hedge funds, 18 percent;
- foreign equity, 8 percent;
- natural resources, 7 percent;
- domestic equity, 6 percent; and
- bonds and cash, 4 percent.