GLOBAL – The Teacher Retirement System of Texas has approved $465m (€360m) of real estate investment commitments, including $200m for the $4bn-plus Starwood Distressed Opportunity Fund IX.
Texas Teachers will also invest $150m in the Oaktree Real Estate Opportunities Fund IV, $100m in a separate co-investment with Oaktree Capital Management, and $15m in Berkeley Capital Partners III.
The pension fund’s commitment to Starwood Capital’s new fund will have helped the company amass more than $4bn in capital for the global opportunistic strategy.
Starwood intends for more than two-thirds of the fund to be made up by distressed debt acquisitions. The company has just announced the hiring of Zsolt Kohalmi, former CIO at Meyer Bergman, to lead its investments in Europe.
Texas Teachers has also backed Oaktree’s latest global opportunity fund, which will target over-leveraged assets and restructuring opportunities.
The $100m co-investment with Oaktree will provide equity for STORE Capital, a privately owned real estate investment trust (REIT) specialising in triple-net sale-and-leasebacks.
Formed in 2011, STORE Capital, which stands for single-tenant operational real estate, invests in assets such as chain restaurants, supermarkets, drug stores and other properties for single tenants.
The $15m commitment to Berkeley Capital Partners, significantly smaller than the others, forms part of Texas Teachers’ real estate emerging-manager programme.
San Francisco-based Berkeley focuses on investments in industrial properties in US markets, including Sacramento, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Fort Worth.
Emerging-manager programmes, which are being pursued by a number of US pension funds, provide access to fund managers whose strategies or activities would otherwise be too small for large investors like Texas Teachers.
