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Investors - DECEMBER 15, 2014

Northeast pension fund commits $75m to infrastructure, $50m to real estate

by Reg Clodfelter

The $12.6 billion Maine Public Employees Retirement System has committed $75 million to IFM Global Infrastructure Fund and $50 million to Westbrook Real Estate Fund X, according to Andrew Sawyer, chief investment officer with MainePERS.

IFM GIF is an open-end infrastructure fund managed by IFM Investors that launched in January 2010.The fund targets core-like infrastructure assets globally, though it specifically focuses on developed markets around the world such as Australia, Europe and the United States.

Though this is MainePERS’ first commitment to the fund, the retirement system committed $200 million to KKR Global Infrastructure Investors II in April, and, coincidentally, purchased a $25 million secondary interest in Westbrook Real Estate Fund IX at the same time.

Westbrook Real Estate Fund X is a $2 billion opportunistic fund managed by Westbrook Partners that launched near mid-year 2014. The fund targets office, hotel, residential land, industrial and retail assets in selected coastal markets in the United States, such as Boston, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., as well as global gateway cities such as Berlin, Frankfurt, London, Munich, Paris and Tokyo. It targets properties that have some distressed capital structures or require some repositioning, and does not include development properties. The fund is targeting a gross return of approximately 15 percent.

Westbrook’s Fund X received a $100 million commitment from the Texas Municipal Retirement System in September.

As of Sept. 30, 2014, MainePERS had 7.9 percent of its assets invested in real estate and 3.4 percent of its assets invested in infrastructure, each short of its 10 percent target allocations.

 

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