The Teachers’ Retirement System of the State of Illinois has hired Westbrook Partners for the first time, backing a value-add real estate fund.
The US pension fund made a $100m (€92m) commitment to the Westbrook Real Estate Fund X.
Illinois Teachers wrote in an email that, during the 2015 fiscal year, its real estate portfolio returned nearly 14.5%.
The pension fund believes Fund X will provide global exposure and diversification benefits to its overall real estate portfolio.
Westbrook is planning to invest half of the portfolio in the US, 40% in Europe and 10% in Japan.
It is looking to raise $2.5bn for the fund, which, unlike Westbrook’s pre-global financial crisis, opportunistic funds, has a value-added investment strategy.
Office buildings, apartments, hotels, retail and industrial assets in London, Munich, Berlin, Frankfurt, Paris and Tokyo are the fund’s main targets.
Westbrook also has a bi-coastal strategy in the US, investing in Boston, New York City, the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles/Southern California.
The manager will typically invest $25m-75m in assets.
As of June, Illinois Teachers has a real estate portfolio valued at $6.2bn and total plan assets of $45.9bn.
