Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund (PERF) has allocated $400m (€355m) to separate accounts focused on US apartments and industrial real estate as it continues to boost its exposure to the two sectors.

The pension fund said it had established a $250m apartments separate account to be managed by Abacus Capital Group and has allocated a further $150m to Columbia Industrial Properties, an existing separate account managed by Lincoln Property Group.

The pension fund has been seeking to increase its industrial and apartment exposure and last year established two joint ventures.

Tony Breault, senior investment officer for the Oregon State Treasury, which oversees the investments for Oregon PERF, told IPE Real Assets: “Those two property types are both showing good performance with less leakage than other property types like office and retail assets since the COVID-19 became part of daily lives.”

Breault said Oregon PERF had also made a $150m commitment to Sculptor Real Estate Fund IV, an opportunistic real estate fund seeking to raise $2bn.

The fund, managed by Sculptor Capital Management (formerly Och-Ziff), is expected to target niche property types such as gaming assets, hotels and senior housing, targeting gross returns of 20%.

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