The Associated Press – College endowments and state pension funds plowed billions of dollars into hedge funds and private-equity investments as a way to balance their stock holdings, and for a time they got supercharged returns.

Those days are over. From Harvard University to the state pension fund of California, officials are watching the value of their alternative investments shrink.

So far, the losses are mostly on paper, but analysts say they could eventually lead to reduced payouts to retirees, higher taxes so state governments can fulfill their promises, or less cash available for colleges to give out financial aid.

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Tags: bahrain, endowment-fund, fund-specialist, losers, mayhem, minerals, poor-performance, stakeholders, time-investors, trillion

AMSTERDAM (Reuters)- The world’s third-largest state pension fund, ABP, is looking to diversify its portfolio by stepping up its investments in media rights, adding to a portfolio that already includes Justin Timberlake and Beyonce.

ABP’s fund manager, APG, may invest hundreds of millions of euros in buying publishing rights for music, movies, and photos to diversify its portfolio, APG head of strategy and research Ronald Wuijster told Reuters on Tuesday.

APG, which manages about 218 billion euros (173 billion pounds) for Dutch ABP, has invested about $465 million (238 million pounds) in music so far this year, obtaining publishing rights in classical and popular music, including Kaiser Chiefs and Rachmaninoff.

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Tags: investment-arm, proceeds, stakeholders, strategic-research