REAL ESTATE - The Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund has allocated a total of $300m to three international REIT managers.
This capital was split up with $150m going to Morgan Stanley Real Estate, $75m to European Investors and $75m to Presima.
Oregon PERF sees that these commitments represent around 30% of the capital that the pension fund wants to invest in international REITs. Its Real Estate Investment Officer Brad Child said, "We will take a wait and see attitude before we decide to hire any more international REIT managers for this year."
The pension fund recently made a policy to change to allow for more activity in investing in REITs outside of the United States. The previous amount was 25%. This has now been increased to 40%. The pension fund made this policy change at its board meeting in late September.
Oregon PERF thinks there will be some exciting investment opportunities in the near future in some new markets. Child said, "Great Brittan and Germany figure to be the next countries to create a REIT market. This should really open up some new companies to invest in."
The pension fund has defined an international REIT program as one that does not include investing in real estate securities in the United States. Oregon PERF hopes that it will be able to achieve a double digit return on investments for its international REIT program.
Oregon PERF will be looking to invest in a variety of companies. These firms will own a multitude of property types. The vast majority of these will be the basic kind of real estate like office buildings, shopping centers, apartments and retail. There could be some hotel assets as well.
