California Public Employees' Retirement System transferred most
of its CalEast Global Logistics industrial real estate portfolio to
private investment firm GI Partners from LaSalle Investment
Management.
The pension fund moved $1.9 billion worth of North American
assets to GI Partners and the portfolio's European assets, valued
at about $60 million, to Deutsche Bank AG's (DB) RREEF real-estate
asset management unit. RREEF has managed the pension's CalWest
industrial portfolio since 1998.
Calpers, the country's biggest public pension fund by assets,
has been restructuring its real-estate efforts, shifting assets to
managers who outperformed peers managing Calpers' investments
during the real-estate downturn. It has also been looking to unwind
its riskier opportunistic real estate investments lately to focus
on core, cash-flowing assets after being burned illiquid holdings
in land and single-family housing during the downturn.
"We have confidence in GI Partners and expect excellent
performance from the CalEast portfolio going forward, given their
strong returns since they joined our real estate program in 2001,"
said Ted Eliopoulos, senior investment officer of Calpers' real
estate group.
-By Matt Jarzemsky, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2240;
matthew.jarzemsky@dowjones.com