Maine Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) has approved a $45m (€39m) commitment each into core open-ended real estate funds managed by Invesco and Stockbridge.

The $19.4bn pension fund said it has placed the capital into the Invesco US Income Fund and the Stockbridge Smart Markets Fund as part of a previously disclosed plan to rebalance its portfolio.

As previously reported, Maine PERS had requested a full $132m redemption from the Prima Mortgage Investment Trust as it considered reallocating capital from real estate debt to core-plus property funds to help rebalance its portfolio.

At the time, James Bennett, CIO of Maine PERS, said the pension fund was considering the Stockbridge Smart Markets Fund and the Invesco US Income Fund “as places to increase our investments”.

Maine PERS has been an investor in the Invesco fund for seven years. Its investment has a current value of $278.2m.

Max Swango, managing director and global head of client portfolio management for Invesco Real Estate, said: “We believe our clients are adding exposure to our real estate portfolios that are positioned well to take advantage of favourable sectors in a post-pandemic world.

“Income, total return, an inflation hedge and access to hard assets, that are benefitting from increased tenant demand, check a lot of boxes for our clients today.”

Maine PERS has been an investor in the Smart Markets Fund since 2013. The pension fund’s investment is valued at $273m. 

Stockbridge declined a request for comment.

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