This week we’ll take a look at the Illinois State Board of Investment’s portfolio. The board manages $28.6 billion for multiple state retirement systems as of 6/30/25, as well as a smaller portfolio of a handful of other state-run funds.
Founded in 1969 and based in Chicago, ISBI is led by executive director and CIO Dipesh Mehta, who first joined in 2018 as deputy executive director, general counsel, and chief compliance officer. Mehta comes from a primarily legal background, having spent the decade before he joined ISBI as an attorney and investment and legal consultant, though he began his career in wealth management and corporate finance.
ISBI publishes monthly reports on its value and asset allocation; below is its investment portfolio as of 7/31/26:
Over the past 10 years, ISBI has outperformed its benchmark by a small margin of 0.1%, though the performance of individual asset classes has varied:
ISBI’s portfolio of external managers is primarily overseen by its four strategic partners – Hamilton Lane, Rock Creek, HighVista, and Franklin Park.
Think Investments
In Friday’s newsletter, users received lists of ISBI’s public equity and private market manager holdings. One of ISBI’s public managers is Think Investments, the San Francisco-based long/short fund founded in 2013 by Shashin Shah following his time as a partner at Valiant Capital and analyst at Blue Ridge Capital. Shah helped spin out Valiant from Blue Ridge in 2008 alongside Valiant founder and former Blue Ridge partner Chris Hansen.
Today, Think manages a regulatory AUM of $4.3 billion across two vehicles – a global long/short fund and an India Opportunities Fund. Over the past decade, Think’s long/short fund has grown from $1.2 billion in AUM to $3.1 billion, while its India Opportunities Fund launched in 2021 with $93 million in AUM and today manages over $1.2 billion. ISBI most recently disclosed a holding in Think’s India Opportunities fund valued at $82 million as of 6/30/25.
Think’s largest disclosed position is Indian alcohol manufacturing company Radico Khaitan. Think first disclosed an investment in Radico in Q4 2014, and OWL estimates it has generated $262 million in profit since. It initially built a 12.4% ownership stake while its shares traded around $1.30 to $1.40, and over the past five years has mostly trimmed its position as the price has reached all-time highs around $50.
Shah pitched a long position in the company at the 2018 Sohn San Francisco Investment Conference and outlined his reasoning after holding the company for a handful of years:
Structural growth: Indian per-capita alcohol consumption at 3 liters versus a 6-liter global average.
Moat: Magic Moments vodka held ~50% of its category; state-controlled distribution raises barriers to entry.
Margin runway: 17.5% heading to 20% within two years, against ~30% at industry peers Diageo and Pernod.
Balance sheet: deleveraging to ~0x by 2019.
Alignment: founders held 40% and had never sold a share.
Price: 20x forward earnings against 20% revenue and 40% EBITDA growth.
Think also invests in the private markets, primarily focused on venture and pre-IPO investments in Indian technology companies, frequently investing alongside Tiger Global:
In addition to ISBI, Think’s disclosed LPs include AB Multi-Manager Alternative and Main Line Health.
There have also been two notable spinouts from Think in recent years. Former Think partner Peter Tiburzio left recently after nine years to launch Crestbreak Capital, and former Think Partner Matthew Kirk left in 2016 to join Maple Rock Partners before launching AQT Capital Management in 2024.
News
Jobs
About Old Well Labs
OWL is an intelligence platform built for allocators, by allocators. Leading endowments, foundations, and family offices use the system to find, monitor, and connect with thousands of fund managers globally. OWL's analytics engine has collected over one billion data points from 65 countries. We make it easy for allocators to find and track information about the managers they care about – not just positions but also performance analytics, people data, business information, and details about the manager investments of other allocators.
Disclaimers
Returns represent the return on invested capital of publicly disclosed long positions, as calculated by OWL. Actual returns may vary based on a number of factors, including (but not limited to) undisclosed positions, short exposure, non-equity holdings, cash holdings, and lagged disclosure of positions.
This newsletter and the material on the Old Well Labs platform are for informational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice or a recommendation of any particular security, manager, or strategy. Certain investment managers, funds, or limited partners (“LPs”) referenced herein may be current or prospective clients of Old Well Labs, and Old Well Labs may have business relationships with such parties. Accordingly, references to any manager, fund, or LP should not be construed as an endorsement, recommendation, or solicitation. Old Well Labs shall not be liable for any investment gain or loss that may occur from the use of this material. No part of this material may be reproduced in any form or used in any publication without express written permission from Old Well Labs.