UNITED STATES – California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) will discuss later this week whether to follow recommendations to allocate more capital to real estate fund managers with less than $1bn under management.
The $162bn pension fund plans to increase its emerging-manager programme for property and the board will discuss the results of collaborative study by Altura Capital and The Townsend Group.
The two advisory firms interviewed 44 organisations, including 10 investors active or considering emerging-manager programmes, six emerging fund-of-funds managers and manager of-manager programmes, and established real estate firms with senior women or minority investor professionals.
The findings, which will be reported at the CalSTRS investment committee meeting on April 12, conclude that allocations of $50m or more is recommended for managers with less than $1bn assets under management in order to gain access to firms pursuing smaller – and, consequently, less capital-efficient – transactions.
The report also recommends a dual approach of hiring emerging managers directly and investing through fund-of-funds managers and manager-of-manager programmes.
In the past, CalSTRS has backed emerging managers though commingled funds, joint ventures, separate accounts, fund-of-funds managers and manager-of-manager programmes.
At the end of 2012, the pension fund had already committed a total of $16.2bn to emerging managers, split between $243m in manager-of-manager programmes, $6.97bn in emerging manager funds and $8.98bn in emerging operating joint ventures.
