Craig Russell Investment Management Division, New York

Verizon focuses on a key part of their pension portfolio, with help from Goldman Sachs.

As the Verizon Investment Management Corp. (VIMCO) focused on a key part of Verizon’s pension portfolio, it turned to the Alternative Investments & Manager Selection (AIMS) Group within the Investment Management business of Goldman Sachs to execute its long-term asset allocation strategy. At VIMCO, an almost $11 billion private equity and real estate portfolio represented a significant portion of the pension plan’s total assets. Goldman Sachs AIMS professionals helped Verizon evaluate the investments in their portfolio, forecast cash flows and shape the program for the long-term benefit of the pension plan.

Clockwise from left:
Suzanne Gauron, Michael Moran, Alec Stais (all New York), Investment Management Division

Goldman Sachs has been an investment manager for Verizon’s pension plans for many years, including corporate relationships with predecessor companies GTE and Bell Atlantic. Our new mandate involves not only managing assets, but also extends to active portfolio management responsibility across hundreds of private equity investments. Through this engagement, Goldman Sachs will assist VIMCO in reshaping its private equity and real estate portfolio, by leveraging Goldman Sachs’ expertise in structuring complex portfolios and helping clients find the right avenues to achieve liquidity.

Because of the depth and breadth of the Goldman Sachs AIMS team, the firm has become a strategic advisor in the private equity space – not just finding and recommending investment opportunities, but helping to reshape private portfolios to meet specific, and sometimes very complex, needs.