New Jersey Pension Shifts $100 Million From U.S. to Asian Real Estate

businessman holding small model house in his hands

The New Jersey Division of Investment, the arm of the state government that manages and invests pension assets, is pulling $100 million out of U.S. real estate and shifting the money to a fund that invests in Asian real estate.

The fund will invest in real estate in China, Japan, Singapore and Australia. More details from IPE Real Estate:

The New Jersey Division of Investment is pulling capital out of two core US real estate funds and redeploying it into an Asia-Pacific property fund.

New Jersey is redeeming all of its $91m (€73.2m) interest in the AEW Core Property Trust as well as a partial redemption from its $400m interest in the CT High Grade Partners II fund.

The pension fund has approved a $100m commitment to SC Investment Management’s Real Estate Capital Asia Partners I, which will be funded by the two redemptions.

Following a recent recovery in US real estate prices, New Jersey decided to rotate capital from existing managers to new opportunities. Over the past several months, the pension fund has been evaluating core investments it made between 2006 to 2008.

New Jersey is seeking to capitalise on sustained occupier and investor demand in Asia Pacific, driven by long-term demographic and urbanisation trends in the region.

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SC Invesmtent is targeting a 9% return by investing in undervalued, under-managed and distressed properties where value creation opportunities exist.

According to New Jersey, SC Investment has been a consistent top-quartile performer. In the manager’s previous investment funds, deals generated a 35% gross IRR and 2.1x return, with proceeds of $600m.

The Division of Investment manages $81.22 billion in pension assets.