An opportunity has opened up for investment consultants to advise the Teachers’ Retirement System of the State of Illinois on its $12.2bn real assets portfolio (€11.2bn).

The pension fund has issued a request for proposal (RFP) for a single firm to advise on its investments in real estate and real assets, which encompasses infrastructure, agriculture and special situations.

Stepstone is the incumbent adviser for both portfolios and its contract expires at the end of the year. It is able to re-bid for the contract.

All responses to the RFP are due by 14 August. The pension fund expects to make a final decision on the search at a board meeting on 13 December.

The successful consultant would be involved in the management of the real estate and real assets portfolios, including making recommendations on new commitments and helping the pension fund’s investment staff in  developing the annual tactical plan for both asset classes and recommending changes to the strategic plan as appropriate.

The two portfolios have a target asset allocation of 18% of the pension fund’s $70.4bn in total assets.

Most of this is invested in real estate, with a current exposure of 15.6%, just below its long-term target of 16%.

More than half (55.1%) of the real estate portfolio is comprised of core investments, with value-add and opportunistic making up 20.7% and 24.2%, respectively.

Half of the portfolio is invested with four separate account managers, while 32.1% is in closed-ended funds and 17.9% in open-ended vehicles.

The real assets portfolio makes up 2.9% of total assets, above its 2% target allocation. Most of the real assets portfolio (88.2%) is comprised of infrastructure investments, with the balance made up of agriculture and special situations.

All of the capital in real assets is invested through closed and open-ended funds.

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