According to a natural gas lease purchase report, MPERS signed a lease with Twin Cities Development, LLC in late October to explore for natural gas under the Golf Club at StoneBridge in Bossier City.
Twin Cities Development, a broker for Chesapeake Oil and Gas Co., has agreed to pay MPERS $2.4 million up front and will give the pension fund a 25 percent royalty from any gas found on the property.
Although the lease has been signed, MPERS has not yet received the $2.4 million check, MPERS attorney Randy Zinna said.
Zinna said, in retrospect, it was fortunate that MPERS didn’t sell the Bossier City golf course.
The discovery of the Haynesville Shale, earlier this year, has turned farmers and others into millionaires as companies lease land for drilling.
Zinna said golf course operations at StoneBridge will not be affected and drilling will occur nearby.
Showing posts with label statewide retirement systems. Show all posts
Showing posts with label statewide retirement systems. Show all posts
Monday, November 24, 2008
Municipal Police Employees’ Retirement System fund leases property
Two golf courses owned by the Municipal Police Employees’ Retirement System and one of them, in the center of the massive natural gas-filled Haynesville Shale, could bring the pension fund tens of millions of dollars years from now.
Retirement systems’ portfolios lose value
Officials of several statewide retirement systems told legislators recently that, despite well-diversified portfolios, their investments lost value.
Actuaries for the systems also said they are confident that the market will recover before serious problems occur.
The recent losses will not have an immediate effect on systems because of a time delay, said Gary Curran, actuary for several of the systems. Systems’ financial valuations lag by a year and the majority of the poor investment period will not enter calculations until 2010, he said.
Also helping systems is a “smoothing” method by which valuations are averaged over a certain number of years — four or five for most statewide systems — so the ups and downs of the market do not directly disrupt systems, Curran said.
When retirement systems do finally figure in losses, some will likely have to increase employer contributions to make up the difference, Curran said. Potential increases depend on the age of members in the system, he said. If there are more people contributing than drawing benefits, employers will have a smaller hole to fill, Curran said.
Actuaries for the systems also said they are confident that the market will recover before serious problems occur.
The recent losses will not have an immediate effect on systems because of a time delay, said Gary Curran, actuary for several of the systems. Systems’ financial valuations lag by a year and the majority of the poor investment period will not enter calculations until 2010, he said.
Also helping systems is a “smoothing” method by which valuations are averaged over a certain number of years — four or five for most statewide systems — so the ups and downs of the market do not directly disrupt systems, Curran said.
When retirement systems do finally figure in losses, some will likely have to increase employer contributions to make up the difference, Curran said. Potential increases depend on the age of members in the system, he said. If there are more people contributing than drawing benefits, employers will have a smaller hole to fill, Curran said.
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