State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB) has outperformed its real estate investment benchmark for two years in a row.
SWIB, which runs the $108.8bn (€87.4bn) Wisconsin Retirement Systems, told IPE Real Assets that it produced a 9.6% return on its real estate portfolio in 2017, outperforming its benchmark, the NFI-ODCE Index, which returned 7.66%, by 194bps.
In 2016, SWIB produced a 10.8% real estate return, just above its benchmark of 10.1%.
Michael Williamson, SWIB executive director, said the investment strategy was designed to weather a variety of economic environments.
“Our strategy continues to deliver the returns needed to keep the retirement system strong over the long term,” he said.
SWIB invests in real estate on behalf of the $100.6bn Core Fund, the largest of the two trust funds that make up Wisconsin Retirement Systems. The Core Fund ended 2017 with an overall return 16.2%, outperforming its benchmark.
Its real estate portfoio was valued at $6.3bn at the end of November, representing 6.3% of assets.
SWIB also has unfunded commitments of $1.85bn, which if included takes it close to its 8% target real estate allocation.
This would still be within the range allowed for the asset class of 5% to 11%, according to the pension fund’s investment policy.
Earlier this year, IPE Real Assets reported that SWIB was planning to invest more capital in real estate in 2018.
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