US roundup: Florida, Louisiana invest in Colony credit fund

Florida State Board of Administration and Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana have committed a total of $225m (€168m) to the Colony Distressed Credit Fund III. Florida allocated $150m and Louisiana the balance.

According to a pension fund document from Louisiana, 40% of the capital for the $1bn fund will be invested in Western Europe and the rest in the US.

The fund will target a diversified portfolio of loan acquisitions, originations and special situations. The targeted property types will include land, retail, office, industrial, hotel, apartments and single-family residential.

Kansas Public Employees Retirement System has approved a commitment of up to $50m to be placed in into the Heitman America Real Estate Trust.

The core open-ended fund invests predominantly in the four main property types in the US.

Public Employees Retirement Association of New Mexico has plans to invest $120m in real estate between now and the end of the year. Half of this has already been committed with $60m allocated into the Starwood Global Opportunity Fund X.

The other half of this capital will be decided upon by the pension fund at its October board meeting.

Joaquin Lujan, portfolio manager for private equity and real estate assets for New Mexico, said: “The commitment with Starwood fits in well with our existing real estate portfolio.

“We had invested with Starwood previously in its Fund VIII and IX and we felt comfortable investing with them again.

“We also were looking to invest some debt capital into Europe and 50% of Fund X will be invested in that region.”

Nebraska Investment Council is planning to invest as much as $50m into core open-ended real estate funds.

The pension fund is looking to invest in funds managed three of its existing managers: Cornerstone Patriot Fund, PRISA managed by Pramerica Real Estate Investors, and the UBS Trumbull Property Fund.

Jeff States, state investment officer for Nebraska, said: “We want to invest this capital in core real estate to keep this portion of our real estate portfolio within our policy range of 60% to 65%.

“These managers have performed well for us in the past. One of the more important factors we will look at is the entry queue for each of these commingled funds.”