NORTH AMERICA – The Oklahoma Teachers’ Retirement System has approved two new manager searches with the view to investing an additional $200m (€146m) in real estate. 

The two RFPs would be for commingled funds, targeting value-add and opportunistic strategies.

The pension fund said it wanted the funds to be open-ended or have other appropriate structures.

Oklahoma Teachers requires that any potential manager have at least three major tax-exempt institutional clients at the time it applies for the RFP.

The pension fund will be conducting the searches along with its investment consultant, the Gregory W Group. 

The deadline for applications is 14 February.

Oklahoma Teachers is looking to achieve annualised returns of 10-20% on the funds.

The non-core manager searches are part of an additional $283m of new capital to be invested in real estate, after the scheme increased its allocation to the asset class from 4% to 7%. 

A portion of the other capital will be invested in real estate debt funds at some point in future, it said.

In other news, the Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System has approved a $75m commitment into the Bell Institutional Fund V commingled fund.

This fund is managed by Bell Partners, with a targeted total capital raise of $300m. 

It will only be investing in apartments across the East Coast and Southwest regions of the US.

Bell Partners invests in markets that have historically reflected rents, with lower volatility than the major Gateway City markets of New York metro, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston and Seattle.

The Bell targeted markets include the District of Columbia, Fort Lauderdale, Dallas, Raleigh, Charlotte, Nashville and Austin. 

The real estate manager focuses on properties placed in supply-constrained submarkets near major infrastructure and employment bases.

Pennsylvania Public School will target returns of 11-14%, while the income yield component of this return will be 6-8%.

The pension fund made the follow-on investment based on the recommendation of its real estate consultant, Courtland Partners. 

Pennsylvania Public School made a $75m commitment into Bell Institutional Fund IV in March 2012.