Pensions vs. buyouts

With leveraged buyouts on the back-burner, private equity firms are eyeing minority investments, including stakes in financial institutions. TPG, for instance, recently bought a minority stake in Washington Mutual, and Corsair Capital owns a piece of National City. But some institutions that invest in private equity funds can make such investments themselves, as New Jersey’s pension fund has shown with stakes in Merrill Lynch, Citigroup, and Lehman Brothers. That raises questions about pension f...