GLOBAL - The School Employees Retirement System of Ohio (SERS) is planning to invest as much as $25m (€18.5m) in a closed-end real estate fund offered by a UK-based property manager Rockspring Property Investment Managers.

The investment will be made in Rockspring TransEuropean Property.

Tim Barbour, senior communications coordinator at SERS, said the pension fund's investment in real estate was not likely to increase further, as it had already reached its 10% target allocation.

As at 30 June, it currently has around $800m - or nearly 82% of its real estate funds - in open-ended and closed-end real estate funds. The rest is in global real estate securities.

SERS does not directly invest in real estate.

The scheme's board authorised a private equity investment of as much as $50m in Green Equity Investors VI by Leonard Green & Partners, a New York-based private equity firm.

This middle-market buyout fund takes control positions in established, middle-market companies in a broad range of industries.

SER's board also proposed changes for opportunistic investment.

In fiscal year 2010, SERS served 126,015 active and contributing members and 66,127 benefit recipients.

The scheme paid out $999m in pensions.

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