NORTH AMERICA – The Wyoming State Loan and Investment Board has approved a £82m (€97m) commitment into the M&G Real Estate Debt Fund III.
This commitment represents the sovereign wealth fund's first investment in real estate outside North America.
Michael Walden-Newman, CIO, said: "We believe, as does our real estate consultant RV Kuhns & Associates, that the real estate debt market in Europe is where the market was in the US 2-3 years ago.
"At that time, we invested with Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers and WestRiver to take advantage of the opportunities here, and we are doing something similar in Europe."
Wyoming said Fund III had an expected return of 8-10% gross IRR, a gross equity multiple of 1.2x to 1.7x and a 6-8% annual dividend yield.
The investment strategy is to originate and acquire a diversified portfolio of stretch senior debt positions collateralised by commercial real estate assets.
The targeted markets will be primarily the UK, with a secondary focus on Germany.
The fund has a projected investment period that will expire in September 2017.
In other news, the State of Wisconsin Investment Board is now looking to invest $350m in real estate.
The pension fund is conducting due diligence on these investments along with its real estate consultant, Courtland Partners.
One of the investments is a $150m financing investment into 150 Worth Avenue, a luxury shopping centre in Palm Beach, Florida.
This property is anchored by Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus.
The property is currently owned by The Goodman Company.
The other investment under consideration is a $200m commitment into a closed-end commingled fund.
This fund invests in office buildings located in the major markets in the US.
SWIB has a real estate portfolio valued at $5.7bn, as of March.
This portfolio makes up 7.1% of total plan assets.
Its targeted allocation for real estate is 7%, with a policy range of 4-10%.
