Harvard University endowment yields flat return for fiscal 2012
Harvard University announced today that its endowment posted a -0.05% return and was valued at $30.7 billion for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2012. The fiscal year 2012 endowment return was 98 basis points in excess of the -1.03% return on the benchmark Policy Portfolio. Jane Mendillo, president and CEO of Harvard Management Company (HMC), said, “The markets during the last year continued to be choppy and highly sensitive to unresolved macroeconomic headwinds. While investment performance over the last 12 months was well below long-term averages, we nevertheless found good investment opportunities through both internal and external management that we believe will sow the seeds for future growth. We are also pleased to have outperformed our Policy Portfolio benchmark for the third year in a row. Harvard’s endowment helps to fund operations critical to the University’s educational and research objectives. In fiscal 2012, distributions from the endowment contributed more than...