And the HMC president said that commoditiesonly comprised about two percent of HMC's overallholdings in 1992, far less than the six percentthe company's policy portfolio indicates. Thatportfolio--which outlines the general breakdown ofHMC's holdings--also calls for the company toinvest 12 percent in venture capital and sevenpercent in real estate.
Industry experts contacted by The Crimson saidthat HMC's portfolio may provide for good, thoughuneven, growth over the long term. But the expertssaid that the breakdown outlined in HMC's plan wasnot a wise one for the last several years.
"This has not been the five years to have beenstructured this way," said A. Michael Lipper,president of New Jersey-based Lipper AnalyticalServices. "For the future, this could bebrilliant...but whether the University can takethe kind of volatility that there may be in that,I don't know."
Critics of the management company were not asoptimistic, however. One finance expert close toHMC said last night that, despite a poor market inreal estate and commodities, Harvard's performancehas lagged behind the industry average.
"It's substantially below what one would expectfrom a return on capital in almost any asset classover that period of time," said the expert, whospoke on condition of anonymity. "I think it'sbeen a tough five years, but I think people canfully expect a strong performance to have providedsome real return on the investment; 2.8 percent isbarely keeping pace with the rate of inflation."
And Albert F. Gordon '59, a longtime benefactorof the University, said the measure of HMC'sperformance means little unless the companyreleases a list of its investments.
"Since Harvard does not disclose itsinvestments in Aeneas, and does not give anyinformation as to the acquisition cost or themethodology in arriving at a current value, thereis no way that an objective observer could commenton the results," Gordon said.
"As such, it must be taken on blind faith," headded. "I, as an investor, do not recommend blindfaith."
Meyer has repeatedly refused to identifyHarvard's private placements, saying that it wouldput the company at a competitive disadvantage