The $145 billion California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) has made an initial commitment of $300 million to an open-end infrastructure fund sponsored by Industry Funds Management (IFM) that targets core assets across a range of sectors in North America and Europe. The partnership’s structure includes another $200 million to be committed within the next 18 months.

The retirement system will have a total of $650 million of infrastructure assets under management once the commitments are fully invested.

CalSTRS’ commitment comes from its dedicated infrastructure allocation, which is targeted at 2.5 percent of the total CalSTRS portfolio.

“We selected a well-established and well-respected partner precisely because CalSTRS is relatively new to the sector, and we want to get to know it well before venturing beyond the fund structure,” says Chris Ailman,