North Carolina Retirement Systems has shifted the strategy of its $423.4m (€390m) BlackRock managed real estate investment trust (REIT) portfolio to an active strategy in a bid to achieve better returns.
The pension fund told IPE Real Assets that the main reason to switching from the passive REIT strategy – which has been managed by BlackRock since March 2016 – is to help the portfolio outperform the assigned benchmark.
“We have a high conviction that the manager will provide consistent alpha, net of fees, compare to the passive strategy.”
For the 12 months ended 31 December 2019, the passive strategy recorded a 22.97% return compared with the 23.06% return of the FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Developed Markets Index over the same period.
North Carolina said it still expects the REIT portfolio to be invested on a global basis and will target a variety of the main property types.
