California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) made $6.6bn (€5.72bn) of infrastructure commitments in 2019 and is tilting its $4.1bn portfolio slightly in favour of higher-return, opportunistic strategies.
According to a board meeting report, the $252bn pension fund has shifted the allowable range for opportunistic investments from 0-20% to 5-25% of the portfolio, while changing the allowable range for core from 45-75% to 40-70%. The balance is in value-add investments.
Currently, core investments make up to less than 45% of the infrastructure portfolio and opportunistic investments represent approximately 15%.
CalSTRS said the changes would enable it to pursue more “build-to-core” strategies.
The infrastructure allocation to North America has also been increased from 70% to 75%. The rest of the infrastructure portfolio is invested in other OECD countries.
CalSTRS made $1.5bn of commitments to infrastructure strategies in the second half of 2019, taking the full-year figure for last year to $6.6bn.
Its infrastructure portfolio makes up 59% of its $7bn inflation-sensitive allocation.
