Iowa Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) is proposing to invest half an $800m (€759.9m) allocation it had planned for real assets this year as the asset’s strong performance lifts the real assets portfolio value close to its allocation target.
The pension fund said in a meeting document that it is calling for the reduction because the real assets portfolio had performed much better than the public markets portfolio and as a result had significantly narrowed the gap between the actual amount allocated to real assets versus the target allocation amount.
Iowa PERS said the proposed reduction to real assets allocation could be increased if the pension fund divests its timber and agriculture assets.
As of the first quarter of the year, Iowa PERS had a $200.6m timber portfolio managed by Forest and a $48.7m agriculture portfolio managed by UBS Farmland Investors.
Iowa PERS said it is planning to issue a request for proposal in the next quarter for real estate or infrastructure managers with value-add investment strategies.
To read the latest edition of the latest IPE Real Assets magazine click here.
