12-04-2008, 08:46 PM
Harvard Endowment Falls 22%, Poised for Worst Return
We all should struggle on $4.2 billion. Where is George Gollin to protect all these billion dollar endowments? Isn't there someone he can get arrested for this?
Quote:By Julie Ziegler
Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Harvard University’s endowment decreased 22 percent, or $8 billion, in the first four months of fiscal 2009, putting the fund on course to have its worst performance in at least four decades.
The decline came in the four months through October, according to a letter dated yesterday by President Drew Faust and Executive Vice President Edward Forst. The endowment, the biggest U.S. education fund, had totaled $36.9 billion on June 30 after gaining 8.6 percent in fiscal 2008. The worst annual return that Harvard, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has recorded in at least 40 years was a loss of 12.2 percent in 1974.
The 22 percent decline, excluding adjustments for real estate and private equity, outperformed the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of stocks, which fell 24 percent during the same period with dividends included. Faust said the school is making budget plans based on a possible 30 percent investment loss for the year ending June 30. Valuations for the fund’s real estate and private equity holdings have yet to be updated.
“The severe turmoil in the world’s financial markets has affected all major asset classes in which the endowment is invested,” Faust and Forst wrote in the letter. The university also plans to issue “a substantial amount” of taxable fixed- rate debt to help support research and financial aid “as we work to absorb the impact of anticipated losses in revenue,” according to the letter.
Colleges and universities across the U.S. are struggling. The University of Virginia at Charlottesville’s endowment declined about 20 percent, to $4.2 billion, in the four months through October. ...
We all should struggle on $4.2 billion. Where is George Gollin to protect all these billion dollar endowments? Isn't there someone he can get arrested for this?
