Purdue University investment officials say they’re waiting for an upswing in world stock markets to help offset some huge losses in recent weeks.
As world financial markets have been racked with instability recently, Purdue acting Chief Investment Officer Scott Seidle estimates the school’s holdings have shed 2-to-3-percent of their value. With an estimated $2.4 billion under management, that means Purdue’s wealth has declined about $60-70 million in the last few weeks.
Seidle says that’s less than the broader market has lost, because Purdue has changed its investment strategy in the last decade.
“What we’ve done is we’ve diversified that asset base to include a lot of private investments, both in natural resources – which would be oil and gas – as well as private equity venture capital and even some real estate,” Seidle says.
However, the energy sector isn’t helping, with natural gas now cheap and abundant and the price of a barrel of oil falling from above $60 in July to below $40 as recently as last week.