US - The Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board has terminated RREEF as one of its separate account managers.

The action was taken at the pension fund's board meeting on 1 June.

Over the last three years, three RREEF portfolio managers running the Mass PRIM account have left the company. 

The last of these was Peter Feinberg, who took a portfolio management position with INVESCO Real Estate in New York.

The pension fund was notified of this on 20 April. 

Both the investment staff of Mass PRIM and consultant Callan Associates agreed to end the relationship with RREEF due to the significant turnover of portfolio managers.

They also cited diminished confidence in RREEF's ability to retain talented staff within its private real estate investment platform.

Tim Schlitzer, a senior investment officer for real estate and timber, said: "This was clearly not a performance issue. 

"RREEF had outperformed the NCREIF Property index by 90 basis points on an annualised basis since the relationship was formed in 1995. 

"It had more to do with the manager's personnel issues on the separate account."

The value of the portfolio managed by RREEF is $728m (€610m) as at end-March 2010. 

It contains 22 properties, with 20 being core and two valued-added. 

The assets are a mixture across the four main property types, spread across the US.

Mass PRIM has awarded the management of the portfolio on an interim basis to one of its existing separate account managers, LaSalle Investment Management. 

Mass PRIM will be issuing an RFP on 14 June for a new, permanent manager on the portfolio.
 

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