Private labors

Look for the union label and you will find it in some unlikely places these days. One case in point: After years of shunning the alternative investment sector, labor union pension plans are trying to embrace private equity funds.

At first glance, the timing seems off. Private equity funds - both venture capital and leveraged buyout operations - delivered handsome returns for most of the late 1990s, returning an average annual 17.9 percent for the five years through September 30, according to research firm Venture Economics. But the past two years brought a sobering morning after. The sector declined 11.3 percent in value for the 12 months through September 30. Now with excess capital chasing a limited number of promising investments, future gains could be hard to come by.

尽管存在这些隐患，但工会仍在冒险利用杠杆收购和风险投资基金。与过去10年来推动其资产类别配置的其他养老金计划、基金会和捐赠基金一样，工会正寻求使其投资组合多样化，并获得一定程度的非相关回报。平均而言，工会养老基金将50%的投资组合分配给股票，40%分配给债券，10%分配给房地产和其他资产类别。

没有人恰好追踪他们的举措，但詹姆斯·曼利，一位资深塔夫·哈特利投资顾问，估计，在过去两年全国的3,200个Taft-Hartley养老基金（由劳动和管理共同管理）致力于私人股票资产上涨20亿美元的股份资金。虽然大多数Taft-Hartley的资金似乎更喜欢风险投资来利用买断基金，但至少有一部曾经看过两者的少数。工会可能现在，私募股权的1％的资产保持接近。这是午餐桶中的一滴，但从估计的三分之一增加了1999年资产课程的1％。但工会仍然落后于养老金，基础和养老产业的平均值7.5％，据最近由高盛，Sachs＆Co.和Frank Russell Co.的报告

“人们对私募股权的兴趣激增，”联合养老基金的领先投资咨询公司马可咨询集团（Marco Consulting Group）董事长杰克•马可（Jack Marco）表示两年前，我的客户没有钱投资于这类资产。现在，他们在这一领域有大约4亿美元。”

"Certainly, there's an increasing momentum among Taft-Hartley funds to invest in private equity," says Enos Throop Jr., director of investments at the $6.2 billion United Mine Workers of America Health & Retirement Funds. A pioneer in the area, UMWA began investing in private equity in 1993 and now has 5 percent of its assets in the sector. Although the private equity portfolio has suffered during the past 18 months, Throop says that over the past five years, it has produced average annual returns of more than 15 percent.

自1997年3月以来，工会旗下保险控股公司Ullico向一家名为大西洋彼岸（Atlantic Crossing）的初创公司投入760万美元，这已成为工会投资私人股本的最引人注目和最具争议的案例。1998年，这家当时被称为环球穿越（Global Crossing）的公司上市后，这部分股权账面价值飙升至16亿美元以上。Ullico在1999年和2000年出售了Global Crossing的股票，税后收入约为3.35亿美元。但这一胜利已被挫败。环球交叉现在在第11章，它的股票交易为便士。Ullico不愿透露仍持有多少股份，但保险评级机构A.M.Best Co.今年1月下调了Ullico子公司的评级，部分原因是Ullico的全球交叉投资“大幅”下滑。上个月有报道称，美国驻华盛顿检察官办公室正在调查Ullico高管是否通过间接从其全球跨境投资中获利而从事不法行为（见下文）。

However the Ullico saga plays out, unions will almost certainly keep pushing into private equity. At the end of last year, for example, the 1199 National Benefit & Pension Funds, part of New York's Health and Human Services Union, decided to boost private equity from roughly 2 percent of its $6 billion portfolio to about 10 percent over the next five years. "This is an area we've been discussing for quite some time," says Lorraine Monchak, chief investment officer at the fund. "There's certainly a learning curve for Taft-Hartleys when it comes to private equity."

On a smaller scale, Local 555 of the United Food and Commercial Workers in Tigard, Oregon, decided in November to invest $30 million of its $600 million portfolio in a private equity fund-of-funds; its umbrella organization, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, earmarked $150 million for the asset class, $20 million of which has been invested.

资产类别的长期机构投资者，亚博赞助欧冠14.7亿美元加州公共雇员退休制度，全国最大的公共养老金计划，希望鼓励私募股权的联盟存在。2月份，它与洛杉矶的私募股权投资者尤卡利亚COS联系起来，以创造尤卡利亚美国的资金，设计为工会寻求采取私募股权赌注的投资车辆。它希望筹集超过15亿美元。卡波斯将投资3500万美元的少数民族利益在yaf的货币管理部门，也致力于1.5亿美元的资金。据小康队员声明，“投资将侧重于维持强大的公司治理实践，并对员工的利益敏感的行业和公司。新资金将由Yucaipa的Ron Burkle（1998年5月），这是一位妇女超市巨头的管理者，也是联合食品和亚博赞助欧冠商业工人的前成员。

"There has been an awakening," says investment consultant Manley. "Labor is coming to a realization that putting some of their money to work in private equity will be good for their funds in the long run."

Although unions are naturally hunting for stronger returns on their pension fund portfolios, there are those who say they are not just in it for the money. Many want to target their capital infusions to worker-friendly companies, and they certainly want to steer clear of antiunion employers or buyout shops that cut costs through downsizing.

"Unions don't want to be embarrassed by their investments," says Bruce Raynor, president of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees, or Unite, which began investing in private equity in 1999 and now keeps 5 percent of its $4 billion in assets in the area. "They don't want to own companies that are shutting down plants and moving jobs to poverty-stricken countries to exploit cheap labor."

AFL-CIO通过其投资产品审查计划来确定工会的良好私募股权基金。劳工组织审查了LBO商店和风险投资公司，为具有健康集体谈判关系和工人友好的管理团队的公司投资的轨道记录。AFL-CIO投资办公室总监Bill Patterson表示：“我们希望提供养老金受托人，以某种方式评估他们是工人友好的管理者。”在办公室的企业交易协调员中添加了他的同事迈克尔花环，“现实是，那里没有很多工人友好的资金。”

Currently, only eight make the AFL-CIO list, including Separate Account P, a private equity fund run by Ullico, and KPS Special Situations Fund, which specializes in corporate turnarounds.

Once they have targeted pro-labor funds for a capital injection, union investors are finding that many private equity firms have considerable excess cash but a dearth of suitable places to invest it. According to the Goldman Sachs-Frank Russell report, just 63 percent of the money committed to private equity has been drawn upon by fund managers.

“这并不是一个简单的时间一个新的探讨tor to be placing his bets," says Colin Blaydon, a business professor at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business and director of its John H. Foster Center for Private Equity. "There is an enormous overhang of committed capital out there."

In addition, valuing private equity is never simple - or transparent - since the stakes are so illiquid; many funds are required to report the value of their holdings just once a year. "There's a risk with private equity," says Michael Calabrese, former pension counsel at the AFL-CIO and an advocate of Taft-Hartley investments in private equity. "You just don't always know what you're getting."

Half of all private equity investments by tax-exempt organizations like foundations and pensions go into leveraged buyout funds, according to Goldman Sachs and Frank Russell, but the specter of LBO-induced layoffs will probably restrain any mass move by unions into the asset class. "Leveraged buyout funds are the biggest chunk of the private equity market, and they aren't perceived as being union-friendly," says Dale Meyer, who raised private equity at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. before leaving the firm in February to work as a partner for money manager Probitas Partners, a private placement agent.

Still, not all Taft-Hartley funds insist on worker-friendly investments in their private equity deals. Some are just looking for the highest return they can get.

“我不相信限制，”联合国的Raynor说，他想在接下来的几年里将私募股权分配翻番到10％。“我们首先返回回报。”

由1947年的Taft-Hartley劳工法案创造，联盟养老基金传统上是一项最谨慎的投资者之一，没有小部分，因为养老金委员会的管理和劳工代表之间的历史上不安的关系。“联盟和雇主受托人之间仍有不同的观点，这往往会使资金更加保守，”Raynor说。“我们都同意股票;我们都同意我们应该在债券中。我们不能同意别的很多。”

AFL-CIO于1965年种植了私募股权投资的种子，当时它创建了抵押贷款投资信托，证券交易委员会注册的货币经理，现在投资了一些420个Taft-Hartley和公共养老金计划。劳动力伞组织希望从一个大部分投资债券的投资组合中多样化，它还希望通过融资新的住房建设来创造工会工作的投资。该信任，现在监督40亿美元的资产，担任私募股权投资的蓝图，投资Taft-Hartleys。

For much of the 1980s, though, private equity remained anathema to labor organizations. Union members saw one LBO fund after another streamline their acquisitions by laying off thousands of workers and raiding the target company's pension fund. By the early 1990s, though, a few union investors, including the UMWA and Ullico, recognized the appeal of selectively diversifying into the asset class, especially as they saw the venture capital explosion creating vast wealth and thousands of jobs.

甚至在其跨国进军之前，Ullico就曾试图通过吸引其他投资者参与其交易来利用其私募股权专业知识。1995年，其资金管理部门信托基金顾问公司（Trust Fund Advisors）设立了一个单独的P账户，1999年，美国劳工联合会首席信息官（AFL-CIO）将该账户评为“优秀”，因为它为工人提供了附带福利。它吸引了早期的投资者，比如10亿美元的服务雇员国际联盟养老基金，承诺提供1000万美元。从1995年到1999年，独立账户P的年平均回报率为19.36%。它不会提供更多最近的性能数据。

另一只获得AFL-CIO“优秀”评级的基金是2.1亿美元的资产KPS特殊情况基金，该基金由Keilin and Co.发起，这是一家投资陷入困境的工会企业的精品投资银行。该公司经常利用员工持股计划为公司债务再融资和资本重组。例如，1999年5月，KPS亚博篮球怎么下串帮助位于北卡罗来纳州阿什维尔的Champion International Corp.的工人购买了该公司的七家造纸和包装厂，因为Champion没有找到买家。KPS出资3500万美元收购了一家新成立的公司Blue Ridge Paper Products 55%的股份。高级管理层得到5%的利息，雇员得到40%的利息，换取15%的工资和福利。这次收购帮助挽救了2200个工作岗位。（由于正在为第二只基金筹集资金，KPS拒绝提供第一只基金的业绩数据。）

More modestly, Pittsburgh-based Heartland Labor Capital Network, a nonprofit consortium backed by the United Steelworkers of America, has spent the past several years encouraging private equity investments by Taft-Hartleys in struggling small to midsize U.S. manufacturing companies that might otherwise shift operations offshore. Heartland is working with Simsbury, Connecticut-based Landmark Partners, which specializes in buying private equity stakes from other investors. Landmark has raised $70 million for a fund that will invest in small-cap private equity and ambitiously aims to have $250 million by the end of the year. Eight union plans have committed $55 million to the fund since it began seeking investors two years ago.

“第一个测试是质量management," says Landmark fund manager Patrick Flanagan, a Harvard MBA whose father worked as a telephone linesman. "One of the key ways in which we will assess that is how they value their most important asset: their workforce."

Companies that are genuinely worker-friendly won't be easy to find, but enthusiasts in the crowd project that within five years the average union fund allocation to private equity could jump to 5 percent.

弗拉纳根说：“这不会在一夜之间发生，但我认为我们会成功的。”。

具有全局交叉的缠结导线

Looking for first-round investors in Atlantic Crossing, his wireless start-up, Gary Winnick turned to some familiar faces in 1997, individuals who had joined his deals in the past. Among them: Michael Steed and Terry McAuliffe, respectively, the former executive director and the current chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Mcauliffe在Winnick的创业中投入了100,000美元，后来销售了现在被称为全球交叉的股票，价值1800万美元。斯蒂德，奥里西科投资高级副总裁，说服了工会拥有的生命保险公司投资760万美元。

对尤利科来说，这笔交易带来了双重好处。这是一项很有希望的风险投资，保险公司能够兑现承诺，温尼克的运营将只在其钻井平台上使用工会工人；斯泰德随后加入了温尼克的董事会。这项投资不到尤利科29亿美元投资组合的1%，是一个起源于1925年的劳工组织为了分享新经济财富而进行的。

Ullico's wild card went public in 1998 as Global Crossing, and its stock soared, then later sank in a now-familiar cautionary tale of speculative excess and market revenge. Three months ago Global Crossing filed for bankruptcy protection, and its shares now trade for pennies, down from a May 1999 high of $61.375. Although Winnick, the CEO and founder, managed to unload stock worth $734 million, not many investors shared his good fortune. Ullico was one of the few. It reportedly sold half its stake of 33 million Global Crossing shares in 1999 and 2000, earning about $335 million after taxes.

但尤利科的成功并非一帆风顺。美国证券交易委员会（sec）和联邦调查局（Federal Bureau of Investigation）一直在调查Global Crossing的财务报告。乌利科曾被誉为“工人友好型”企业，但在努力重新站稳脚跟之际，却解雇了数千名员工。而现在，根据《商业周刊》发表的一篇报道，华盛顿特区的一个大陪审团正在调查有关尤利科首席执行官罗伯特·乔治恩（Robert Georgine）和其他一些董事会成员在与该公司的交易中通过买卖尤利科股票不当获取巨额利润的指控。据报道，Ullico（一家不在公开市场交易的私人公司）的其他股东无法获得这些交易。股东们只能把他们的股票卖给Ullico，Ullico每年根据其盈余的大小（资产负债表上资产和负债的差额）对股票进行一次定价。

上个月的Businessweek报告说，Ullico Insiders知道公司将于1999年底以146美元的价格报价，因为全球交叉投资大大夸大了盈余。据Businessweek称，该公司于1998年的1998年的价格为1998年的价格为4,000股股票。例如，Georgine的Ullico控股从1998年的8,800股股份上升到1999年的52,800股，并根据该杂志的说法将他的股票卖给Ullico的价格为146美元，这说明他为什么有这么多股票。AFL-CIO正在进行自己的调查;Ullico拒绝评论。

In January a subsidiary of the union-owned insurer got hit with a downgrade in its A.M. Best Co. rating, from B++ to B+. According to an A.M. Best report, the sharp decline in the value of the Global Crossing investment had reduced Ullico's ability to help Union Labor Life Insurance Co. bolster its capital base, which had suffered declines because of losses in one of its business lines. In recent years Ullico had buoyed Union Labor Life with cash infusions, funneling $15 million into the subsidiary in 1999 alone. A.M. Best concluded that the decline in value of the Global Crossing holdings means that Ullico won't be able to offer similar assistance going forward.

And in an entirely separate episode, last month the Department of Labor sued Ullico, alleging that the insurer broke pension laws by investing $10 million in retirement funds in a shaky Las Vegas real estate venture. - J.D.