Illinois Teachers’ Pension Commits $140m to Emerging Managers

The Illinois Teacher Retirement System this week said it will commit $140 million to two emerging managers, nearly doubling the amount of money the fund had previously committed to emerging manager real estate funds.

The funds are Oak Street Capital and Exeter Property Group — the latter of which is already oversubscribed. TRS will be jockeying with several other pension funds — including the Texas Permanent School Fund and the New York State Teachers fund — to have their commitment accepted.

More from IPE Real Estate:

The pension fund is committing $100m (€95.2m) to Oak Street Capital Real Estate Fund IV and $40m to Exeter Industrial Value Fund IV.

The commitments represent a significant expansion of the programme. The pension fund currently has $79.4m invested with emerging real estate managers.

Oak Street Capital invests in net-lease real estate, a part of the market that US pension funds rarely invest in, according to industry sources.

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There is some uncertainty as to whether the commitment to Exeter Industrial Value Fund IV will be accepted, since it has been oversubscribed for its $1.15bn targeted capital raise.

Illinois Teachers considers Exeter to be an emerging manager. The pension fund told IPE Real Estate that the company “fits within the TRS definition of emerging manager”.