Aurora (Colo.) General Employees’ Retirement Plan committed $13 million to the Morgan Stanley Prime Property Fund, an open-end core real estate fund, Thomas Connell, pension plan administrator, said in an e-mail.
The fund will replace the BlackRock Granite Property Fund, also an open-end core fund that was removed from the lineup because of long-term performance. The fund had been on watch since May 2009. “As of the quarter ending June 30, 2014, the fund’s performance was below the NFI-ODCE benchmark for the latest one-, three- and five-year periods (as well as in the previous seven-, 10- and 15-year periods). While the fund suffered a significant loss in the 2008 to 2009 period, its uneven progress since that time is what led the trustees to lose confidence in the fund,” Mr. Connell wrote.
Tara McDonnell, spokeswoman for BlackRock, could not immediately provide a comment.
The $400 million pension fund has a 10% target allocation to real estate.
On the private equity side, the pension fund approved a $20 million commitment to HarbourVest Partners’ HIPEP VII Partnership Fund, a fund of funds that focuses on private equity investments in Europe, Asia-Pacific and emerging markets. The pension fund also committed an additional $10 million to Abbott Capital Management’s fund of funds Abbott Capital Private Equity Fund VII, bringing its total commitment to $20 million, wrote Mr. Connell.
The private equity commitments are expected to bring the pension fund to its 10% target.
