UNITED STATES - San Bernardino County Employees Retirement Association has voted to issue redemption queues in three open-ended commingled funds amounting to $106m (€80.3m).

Pension fund officials said the decision was made because its real estate holding is seriously overweight because of the denominator affect of recent market turbulence.

That said, despite the action being taken, the pension fund will not be getting its capital back anytime soon.

Under the current asset allocation weightings, San Bernardino County appears to have invested 15% of its portfolio in real estate but the targeted asset allocation for real estate is 8%, and the situation exists even though the pension fund has invested little in the real estate asset class over the past few months.

The funds now being redeemed are $70m for REEEF America REIT II, $14m for RREEF America REIT III and $22m for BlackRock Diamond Fund.

RREEF stop issuing capital back to investors in America II and III in March of 2008 while BlackRock Realty made the same move in June of last year so pension fund officials are not sure when they will get the fund's capital out of these commingled funds.

RREEF structured RREEF American II as a core commingled fund to invest mostly in established and well-leased US office, industrial, retail and apartments space.

RREEF America III has more of a value-added strategy for as it either invested equity in new development projects or bought existing assets - of the four main property sectors - which need to be improved through renovation, releasing or redevelopment.

The Diamond Property Fund is a value-added commingled fund invested in US office, industrial, retail and residential assets.

Topics