UNITED STATES - Alaska Retirement Management Board (ARMB) is to issue $103m (€76.3m) of redemption queues on three open-ended commingled funds as its allocation to real estate exceeds its strategic target.

 The pension fund is looking to withdraw $61m from the JP Morgan Strategic Property Fund, as well as $24m from the UBS Trumbull Property Fund and $18m from the BlackRock Diamond Property Fund.

The redemption queues represent approximately 25% of the total amount of capital invested in the three funds by the ARMB.

The move is intended to ensure the pension fund's allocation to real estate is more in line with its long-term level of exposure.

Steve Sikes, state investment officer at ARMB, said: "We felt we needed to do this as our overall investment portfolio has been hit pretty hard by the denominator affect in the second half of last year. Another factor is that open-ended commingled funds are the one area in our private real estate portfolio that has a liquidity feature."

ARMB made no new commitments or investments in real estate in the second half of 2008, but it is still above its 10% target allocation for the asset class.

Investments in real estate made up 12.8% of the pension fund's total investment portfolio as at 30 September 2008.

Despite these developments, the pension fund has not ruled out making new investments in 2009.

Sikes said: "There is a chance that we would consider looking at some new investment opportunities. One of these could be providing some first mortgage financing on very safe and traditional real estate.  This is a sector of the marketplace that is looking for some capital."

 

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