Oxford’s Baptist Investment Fund Earns $13M Since 2012

By Alyssa Schnugg
News editor
alyssa.schnugg@hottytoddy.com

The $30-plus million investment from the sale of Baptist Memorial Hospital-North Mississippi has earned more than $13 million since 2012.

On Tuesday, representatives from Glenmede Investment Group, which is handling the city’s fund, presented the third-quarter report to the Oxford Reserve and Trust Fund Committee. The fiscal year for the investment fund runs from April 1 to March 31.

The value of the fund as of March 31, was $36,441,841. However, as of Monday, the fund was valued at $36,754,877, representing a net investment gain of about $12.4 million that includes any withdrawals for fee payments and the annual 3 percent payout to the city of Oxford that goes into the city’s general fund to help fund a variety of projects.

Each year the city has received about $800,000-$887,000 from the fund, totaling almost $6 million.

For the quarter, the fun had a 3.5 percent return and a 4.9 return since inception.

The fund’s long-term goals, set up by the committee, are capital preservation and real growth after inflation and the annual 3 percent payoff.

Glenmede is instructed to try to grow the fund enough to allow for annual payouts but to do so in a conservative fashion as to not risk losing the initial $30 million investment. The fund is a moderately low-risk investment.

As of March 31, 40 percent of the assets are allocated to equities, 60 percent is allocated to fixed income and cash. Fixed income investments are in high-quality U.S. bonds rated A or better with a tilt toward corporate bonds.

In 2012, Baptist paid the city and Lafayette County $60 million to buy the hospital so it could get out of its lease and build the new Baptist hospital that opened in November 2017. Baptist eventually sold the old facility to the University of Mississippi for $22 million. The city and county split the funds and received $30 million each.