Kansas Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) is planning to issue a request for proposal (RFP) for real estate investment trust (REIT) managers as the pension fund seeks to increase its yield-driven portfolio.
According to the pension fund’s meeting document, the RFP is expected to be issued in August or September with a plan to allocate funds to hired managers early next year.
Kansas PERS previously increased the target allocation to its yield-driven portfolio from 6% to 12%.
The funding for the new allocation came from capital redeemed from the pension fund’s US Treasury inflation-protected portfolio. Part of the capital for the new allocation is also from a rebalancing activity.
The existing makeup of this asset class is for REITs based in the US only and US high-yield bonds.
Kansas PERS currently has CenterSquare REIT as REIT manager overseeing a $339m (€308.8m) portfolio benchmarked against the MSCI US REIT Index.
The CenterSquare-managed portfolio accounts for 23.6% of the $1.4bn yield-driven portfolio.
The RFP is expected to either lead to an increase in the current investment managed by CenterSquare or the hiring of additional managers.
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