GLOBAL -  The Teachers' Retirement System of the State of Illinois has awarded new allocations totaling $322.6m ($243.5m euros) to its four existing fund managers.   The new allocations were $100m each to INVESCO Real Estate and Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers, $76.2m to KBS Realty Advisors and $50m to Lincoln Property Company.   Cornerstone and INVESCO already had uninvested capital prior to the new allocations worth $142.7m and $146.4m respectively.   The investment strategies of the new allocations to Cornerstone, INVESCO and Lincoln are all core.  KBS is almost exclusively a value-added office investor for the pension fund.   All of the separate account managers have investment discretion within the parameters of their accounts, allowing them freedom to make decisions without approval from the pension scheme.   Cornerstone has a mandate to invest in all property types for Illinois Teachers.  The real estate manager focuses on barrier markets and is currently underweight to retail.   INVESCO will also be looking at retail and has an overall underweight position in offices since there is less tenant demand for this property type in the near term.   Lincoln only buys office buildings for the pension fund and primarily focuses on properties on the East and West coasts.   All of the managers working with Illinois Teachers are expected to meet the hurdle return rates.  The leveraged IRRs for core are 9.5% and 11.5% for specialty.  The pension fund defines specialty as both value-added and opportunistic.   Through the end of March, the scheme had a real estate portfolio valued at $3.24bn.   This makes up 10.1% of its total plan assets, while the targeted allocation for real estate is 14%.

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