Orange County Employees Retirement System (OCERS) is redeeming its $68.2m (€61.8m) investment in the Jamestown Premier Property Fund to reinvest as part of a new $250m commitment to Principal Real Estate Investors’ flagship core fund.
In a meeting document, OCERS said the full redemption is being issued because the two main property types in the fund do not fit with the pension fund’s sector portfolio objectives.
The Premiere Property fund has 66.8% of its portfolio in office and 25.4% in retail.
OCERS intends to increase its exposure to industrial and apartments and decrease its investment in office and retail.
According to the pension fund’s consultant The Townsend Group, the Premier Property Fund lagged the benchmark by 93 basis points over the trailing year. OCERS made a $75m commitment to the fund in July 2015 and approved a $20m redemption in March 2018.
Jamestown, which did not respond to a request for comment, recorded a net return of 8.6% for the fund since inception, compared with a 7.4% return for the NFI-ODCE benchmark for the same time period.
The redeemed capital, which is expected to be received in the second quarter of this year, will be placed into the Principal US Property Account.
