NORTH AMERICA - The Teacher Retirement System of Texas has approved $400m (€316m) of new real estate investments in two separate strategies.

The first was a $200m commitment to Brookfield Strategic Real Estate Partners B, while the second was a new separate account relationship with Starwood Real Estate Securities for $200m.

Real Estate Partners B is an opportunity fund investing in office, industrial, retail and apartments. 

The fund will invest in distressed loans and securities, as well as in some real estate companies.

It will also be global in scope, focusing on North America, Europe, Brazil and Australia.

The separate account with Starwood will invest in US-based, publicly traded real estate securities. 

The company will have full investment discretion on the account, able to make investment decisions on its own without approval from the pension fund.

The Starwood deal the second time the pension fund has hired an outside real estate manager to run a REIT portfolio. 

In an email, it noted that it hired Security Capital Income and Opportunity Fund in 1999, making an initial commitment of $175m.

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