Alaska Retirement Management Board (ARMB) plans to invest $200m (€163m) in an open-ended core real estate fund managed by BlackRock.

Neither the pension fund nor BlackRock commented but a board meeting report names the BlackRock US Core Property Fund.

ARMB is already invested in two other open-ended core funds. It has $250m invested in the JP Morgan Strategic Property Fund and $202m in the UBS Trumbull Property Fund.

The BlackRock fund was launched in 1981 and reported a net asset value of $1.8bn at the end of 2017.

It has 31 assets in the office, industrial, retail and apartment sectors. According to the board meeting report, the fund has 93.9% vacancy rate and leverage ratio of 27%.

BlackRock said there was potential to capitalise on rental growth in the porfolio with the average in-place rents 9.1% below the market average.

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