Mississippi Public Employees Retirement System, Jackson, hired four real estate managers to handle $50 million each. RREEF Funds and Wellington Management will run REIT funds, and Principal Real Estate Investors and UBS Realty Investors, commingled funds, said Frank Ready, executive director. The hirings are the $14 billion plan’s first in real estate, he said. Funding will probably come from cutting back on the 30% fixed income allocation, but a final decision hasn’t been made. System officials plan to put 5% of total assets into real estate, phased in over time.
Mr. Ready said the system might conduct more searches or give additional funding to the four real estate managers, but no decision has been made on future allocations. Callan is assisting.