Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund (PERF) will not be hiring new real estate fund managers due to current restrictions on movement.
Anthony Breault, senior investment officer for the Oregon State Treasury, which oversees the investments for Oregon PERF, said: “We have made the decision to put a moratorium for now on hiring any new managers.”
As previously reported, the pension fund had planned to invest up to $1.4bn in real estate in 2020.
Breault said: “With travel not allowed, we can’t have our normal two to three-day meetings with a new manager where we feel comfortable with them when our meetings are done.”
Oregon PERF has, however, retained Meketa Investment Group as its investment consultant for its $8.7bn (€8bn) real estate portfolio, following a request for proposals issued in August of last year.
Breault said the new contract would last three years with an option to extend by two years.
Meketa will advise Oregon PERF on portfolio construction, manager selection and monitoring on a non-discretionary basis.
Asked whether Oregon PERF would be committing capital to strategies that could capitalise on distressed situations in the coming months, Breault said “there is already enough capital that has already been raised to pursue those opportunities”.
