NORTH AMERICA – The Wyoming State Loan and Investment Board is planning to set aside $250m (€188m) for new real estate investments.
A decision on the first part of the allocation has already been made.
The sovereign wealth fund has approved a $150m commitment into Northwood Real Estate Partners, a non-core fund that will focus on investing in two major regions of the world – the major metropolitan areas of the US and the super-regional markets in Western Europe.
The commingled fund will be looking at three kinds of deals.
According to a document from Wyoming, Northwood will be buying assets where a significant portion of the value is generated by growing cashflow at the underlying property, assets that can be acquired at a discount and assets where the opportunity exists to add value through redevelopment or additional development rights.
The property types considered will be a combination of retail, office, apartments, hotels and industrial.
Northwood intends to generate a 15-20% gross and 12-16% net IRR, and a 2x gross equity multiple for its investors.
The sovereign wealth fund will be looking at another non-core real estate investment fund for its October board meeting.
Michael Walden-Newman, CIO at Wyoming, said: "Once this commitment is approved, we will be satisfied with our real estate investments for a while."
Wyoming has invested in four other non-core commingled funds – Heitman Value Partners II, TA Associates Real Estate Fund VIII, Cornerstone Core Mortgage Fund I and WestRiver Real Estate Finance Fund.
The sovereign wealth fund has on the core side invested in the Clarion Lion Properties and UBS Trumbull Property funds.
