Santa Barbara County Employees Retirement System (SBCERS) is diverting capital from real estate investment trusts (REITs) into a fund managed by Blackstone.
The pension fund is liquidating $20m (€17.8m) of REIT investments managed by Harrison Street Securities and reinvesting the proceeds in Blackstone Property Partners, according to a board meeting document.
It will mean that 68% of the REIT portfolio managed by Harrison Street Securities will be sold.
It is the second time this year that SBCERS has taken capital out of the REIT portfolio. In April it withdrew $5m.
A new $20m commitment is pending for Blackstone Property Partners, a fund with $13.3bn of core-plus real estate investments in the US.
The fund has produced a net internal rate of return (IRR) of 13%.
The REIT portfolio managed by Harrison Street Securities has produced an IRR of 11.8% since inception.
SBCERS is also investing in two non-core real estate fund, committing $10m to Walton Street Real Estate Fund VIII and $5m to Miller Global Fund VIII.
The former is a US-focused opportunistic fund for which Walton Street Capital is looking to raise $1.5bn.
The second fund, managed by Miller Global Properties, will invest in office and hotel assets, including developments, in the US.
