Kansas Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) is investing in US life-science and healthcare properties via an open-ended fund managed by Ventas but plans to lower its overall real estate allocation as it increases its infrastructure exposure to manage risk and maintain target returns.
The pension fund said it has made a $85m (€78.6m) commitment to the Ventas Life Science and Healthcare Real Estate Fund.
Ventas disclosed in its 2024 first-quarter earnings report that the fund had a gross book value of $2.3m for 13 life-science and medical office assets and an additional $77m for two senior apartment assets.
Kansas PERS’s investment in the Ventas fund, classed as a core-plus investment, marks the pension fund’s inaugural real estate commitment of 2024. As previously reported, Kansas PERS expects to invest $250m in core and $350m in non-core real estate assets this year.
Kansas PERS has reviewed its asset allocation, increasing its exposure to infrastructure.
The $25bn pension fund plans to reduce its real estate allocation from 15% to 12% and allocate an additional 3% to infrastructure, bringing its total infrastructure allocation to 6%. This decision is aimed at lowering overall portfolio volatility while maintaining the fund’s 8.25% long-term return target.
Despite the reduced allocation, real estate remains a core asset class for Kansas PERS, currently representing 9.9% of the portfolio.
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