NORTH AMERICA – The Pennsylvania Public School Employees' Retirement System has approved a $150m (€110m) commitment into the International Infrastructure Finance Company Fund, managed by Mariner Investment Group. 

The fund is looking at a possible total capital raise in the range of $200m-400m. 

A first closing is projected for the fourth quarter and then the final closing 12 months later.

According to a document from Pennsylvania Public School, the fund will invest predominately in European infrastructure loans, as new regulations impacting European banks are the most restrictive.

In other news, the San Francisco City and County Employees' Retirement System has made a $65m allocation to the CIM Fund VIII.

The targeted returns for the commingled fund are at least a 20% gross IRR and a 2x equity multiple.

CIM Group, the real estate manager of Fund VIII, will be making a co-investment of up to $20m, representing 5% of the total commitments.

The fund manager is hoping for a total capital raise of $2bn. 

According to a pension fund document, CIM has raised $675m for the fund, through the end of September. 

These commitments include $90m from two unnamed corporate pension funds in Europe.

The general investment strategy for Fund VIII is to acquire properties in markets with high barriers to entry and generate returns through repositioning, redevelopment and, in some cases, new development of real estate products. 

The fund will only be investing in the US in major metropolitan markets such as San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York City. 

It will focus on urban areas and markets with high growth and/or in a transitional phase. 

The favoured property types are residential, retail, industrial, mixed-use, hotels and office.

The commitment by San Francisco City and County leaves the pension fund with $183m left to invest in real estate between now and June 2014. 

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