The New York State Common Retirement Fund has approved $500m (€444.9m) in commitments for its real assets portfolio.
The US pension fund invested $300m in TIAA-CREF’s Global Agriculture II fund and $200m in KKR’s Infrastructure Investors II fund.
In an email, New York Common said it made the former investment due to the fund’s size and geographically diverse mandate.
The $3bn fund targets opportunities in the US, Brazil, New Zealand, Australia and Chile.
New York Common said it viewed TIAA-CREF’s fund as a core farmland strategy producing a high single-digit investment return.
The vehicle – targeting corn, soy beans, almonds and sugar – has also attracted Cummins UK Pension Plan Trustee, AP2 and the Greater Manchester Pension Fund as investors.
New York Common also cited the “very strong attributes” of KKR’s infrastructure fund, which it said would provide asset-class diversification, stable risk-adjusted returns and, in certain instances, cash flows linked to inflation.
The pension fund’s investment staff also deemed KKR’s deal sourcing and ESG integration as favourable.
Infrastructure II will be investing in energy, water/wastewater, transportation and communications.
New York Common expects the strategy to focus on developed OECD countries and target a net IRR in the low teens.
