Virginia Retirement System has continued to back Blackstone’s Asia-Pacific real estate strategy, following the success of its first fund.
The pension fund told IPE Real Assets it had approved a $150m (€123m) commitment to Blackstone Real Estate Partners Asia II.
It made the same commitment to the fund’s predecessor in 2013, which according to Blackstone’s third-quarter earnings report has generated an internal rate of return of 17%.
Blackstone, which declined to comment, also revealed in the report that its second Asia-Pacific fund had secured total commitments of $5bn.
As previously reported by IPE Real Assets, a number of recent commitments have come from investors in the US, including San Francisco City Employees, Illinois Teachers and the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund.
The fund will be investing in existing assets and developments – through debt and equity acquisitions – in China, India, Japan and Australia.
Virginia Retirement System’s real estate investments in Asia-Pacific are managed exclusively by Blackstone and The Fortress Group.
Its total real asset portfolio was valued at $9.5bn at end of August.
