NORTH AMERICA – The Teachers' Retirement System of the State of Illinois has approved two new real estate-related commitments totalling $150m (€112.5m).

One of these is a $75m allocation into the Oaktree Real Estate Opportunities Fund VI, an opportunity fund managed by Oaktree Capital Management.

The long-range goal for the fund is to look for over-leveraged assets and pursue re-structuring opportunities. 

The investments will involve a number of possible strategies, including commercial real estate, structured finance, land acquisition and residential non-performing loans.

Illinois Teachers also made a $75m allocation to GI Partners IV, a closed-end commingled fund managed by GI Partners.

The fund manager will be making investments in investment companies involved with real estate and other asset classes. 

For GI Partners III, capital was allocated to two real estate companies.

The fund allocated $300m to Waypoint Real Estate for the acquisition of single-family homes for rent. 

There also was an investment made into Stag Industrial, which invests in single-tenant industrial properties in the US.

Illinois Teachers has $4.6bn invested in real estate, representing 11.7% of its $39.6bn of total plan assets, as of the end of March. 

The allocation target for real estate is 13%.

In other news, Los Angeles County Employees' Retirement System has made a $25m commitment into the Torchlight Debt Opportunity Fund IV.

The total equity raise is projected to be approximately $1bn. 

The projected net IRR for the limited partners is 15%, including a current income component of 7-9%.

Torchlight will be making a co-investment into the fund of up to $10m, while maximum leverage component will be 30%.

Fund IV is a debt investment fund that will only be placing capital in the US. 

The transactions will include a variety of structures, such as CMBS, mezzanine debt, B-notes, preferred notes and financing for distressed mortgages.