GLOBAL - The Santa Barbara County Employees Retirement System has taken its first real estate action since hiring ORG Real Property as its real estate consultant in June.

Its first move was to file a redemption queue for its investment in RREEF America II, a core open-ended commingled fund. The pension fund has placed the value of its investment at approximately $35m (€26.4m).

Pension fund officials said they planned to place the capital in another core open-ended commingled fund with better investment performance, although they conceded they were unsure when they would receive the funds from RREEF America II. 

RREEF America II is the pension fund's sole core investment. Its other two commingled fund investments - CB Richard Ellis Strategic Partners US Value V and Rockwood Capital Real Estate Partners VIII - are valued-added. 

Separately, Santa Barbara County said it will be looking to invest as much as $15m into real estate opportunities in two different strategies - $10m into a value-added/opportunistic commingled fund and $5m into a commingled fund buying limited partnership interests on the secondary market.

The pension fund will be making these investments through ORG, which has been hired as a discretionary real estate consultant.

The pension fund has total plan assets of $1.8bn. Over the past few months, it and ORG decided to reduce the scheme's targeted allocation to real estate from 6% to 4%.
 

Topics