Nebraska Investment Council has approved a commitment of $50m (€36.3m) to the Landmark Partners VII fund. The ‘secondaries’ fund will acquire limited partnership positions in existing commingled funds on the secondary market.
Jeff States, state investment officer for Nebraska, said: “We think that there are many limited partners who are looking for liquidity with their investments in close-ended commingled funds.”
Most of the investments will be with commingled US funds. Funds investing in Europe and Asia will also be considered. Nebraska expects sellers to range from banks to insurance companies and pension funds.
Landmark is targeting capital commitments of around $1bn for Partners VII, with no leverage on the fund. Nebraska’s commitment to Landmark is its first investment in real estate since increasing its targeted allocation for real estate from 5% to 7.5% in November last year.
“We are now thinking about investing an additional $120m or more in real estate this year. This would all be through commingled funds. The focus for us will be non-core US - we would consider some funds that are investing in Europe.”
Typical size commitment is in the range of $30m to $50m, States added.
Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund has approved an investment of up to $50m in Greystar Equity Partners VIII.
Greystar is seeking $600m in equity commitments for the closed-end, non-core fund, with leverage at 60%. Greystar’s senior principals will co-invest 5% of commitments up to a maximum of $20m. The fund will invest in US apartments.
Ohio expects an unleveraged gross IRR of 9% and a leveraged, net IRR of 13%.
The investment follows Ohio’s $50m commitment to Greystar Equity Partners VII in 2011. The new commitment to Greystar is the first real estate investment by Ohio in 2014. The pension fund is planning to invest up to $175m in real estate this year.
Ohio has a total real estate portfolio valued at $1.3bn, or 9.2% of its total plan, with a long-term target allocation of 12% for the asset class.
