REAL ESTATE- California Public Employees Retirement System has sent out an RFP for managers for an international public real estate equity securities (PREES) investment program.

The Sacramento-based fund has not established a specific amount for the program. Any manager selected for the program will be awarded an amount in the range of $25m-$500m.

CalPERS’ investment spokesperson Clark McKinley said: “We are hopeful that this strategy we give our investment portfolio an additional layer of diversification. This would be with investing in some new companies that we have invested before and some different economies around the world.”

The final filing date for the search is May 2. The scheme will recommend finalists to the board on June 19. The finalists’ interviews will take place over the summer. The CalPERS board could approve manager contracts on August 14.

CalPERS will have an international global strategy for the PREES search. There will be no investments made in companies in the US and North America.

The fund will select one or more managers for this investment program. It would prefer to do business with only experienced players in the field. Joint venture proposals will be accepted.

CalPERS has established some minimum requirements for the search. One of these is that any applicant must have at least $35m under management with an international PREES kind of strategy. There also must be a one-year operating history with the proposed investment plan for the RFP.

The pension fund will give each manager chosen for this search full investment discretion. This means they will be able to make final investment decisions without the approval of the pension fund.

CalPERS has no shortage of capital that it could invest in real estate. The pension fund has now invested 4.5% of its total assets in real estate. It has an 8% targeted allocation for the asset class and a range of 4% to 12%.