The Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana is planning to invest an additional $50m (€45.3m) in MetLife Real Estate Investors’ Core Property Fund, according to a board-meeting document.
The commitment is based on the recommendation of the pension fund’s investment consultant, Hamilton Lane.
Louisiana Teachers could invest additional capital in core real estate in the future.
Hamilton Lane wrote in a board-meeting document that the consultant would continue to evaluate other core open-ended managers to determine whether it could enhance returns and diversification.
The new commitments will be done to rebalance the core portfolio and take advantage of a fee break that MetLife is offering for founding investors.
Maurice Coleman, director of private markets for the pension fund, said: “TRSL periodically rebalances its investment portfolio. This month, the rebalancing was into core real estate through one of the existing managers.”
Louisiana Teachers had an existing investment in the Core Property Fund of $255.3m, as of June 2016.
The investment represents 15% of the fund’s total net asset value of $1.7bn.
The fund has outperformed the benchmark on a one-year total net return basis.
Hamilton Lane reported in a board-meeting document that the one-year total net return was 16.1% at the end of 2015, compared with 14.2% for the NFI-ODCE Index for the same period.
Louisiana Teachers has allocated capital to two other core, open-ended funds, investing $412.6m in the JP Morgan Strategic Property Fund and $221.2m in PRISA.
The overall core portfolio held by the pension fund will account for 58% of its total real estate portfolio once the new commitment to MetLife is made.
