Chesterton Tribune

 

 

Hospital sale investment doing well for county

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By JEFF SCHULTZ

Porter County’s financial gains from the investment of the proceeds of the sale of the county owned Porter Memorial Hospital continue to grow.

According to investment advisor Amanda Black, chief executive officer with Capital Cities LLC, the County’s Nonprofit Charitable Foundation ended its second quarter of the year with $151,462,130 in its portfolio.

That’s a $4 million increase since the first quarter and so far the investment has earned roughly $5.5 million in interest.

Black said the portfolio has reached an interest rate of 4.4 percent since its inception, higher than the performance target of 2.47 percent.

“(The investment) is beating all the benchmarks we’ve set for it,” Black told the Foundation’s Board of Trustees which consists of all members of the County Council and the Board of Commissioners.

The Foundation was initiated earlier this year to gain a higher return on investment from the hospital sale principal than conventional investment methods. Officials have suggested the interest could be used to fund capital projects in the county, help community non-profit organizations or bonding for local municipalities and schools.

County officials said it is their goal for the investment earn 5 percent in interest and any gains above that will be put back into the fund to continue to build the portfolio.

Black said the Foundation benefited from a growing marketplace which has bounced back from the downward pressures that Brexit caused in June. The strongest performances were seen in small cap growth stocks which returned 9.2 percent. Equity styles all display positive returns and so did fixed income styles, although at a slower rate, she said.

The Foundation investment includes more fixed income than equities but all are still performing strongly, Black said. “Every one of your investments have green stoplights.”

After Black’s report, County Council President Dan Whitten, D-at large, said he would like for his colleagues to further discuss a procedure for taking requests of non-profit groups wanting to use the interest money. “I’ve been getting many calls, as I am sure a lot of you have, on how we are going to do this,” Whitten said.

 

Posted 12/7/2016

 
 
 
 

 

 

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