Texas Municipal earmarks up to $450 million to 5 alternative investment funds

Texas Municipal Retirement System committed a total of up to $450 million to five alternative investment strategies.

Trustees of the $27.6 billion defined benefit plan approved the recommendation of the fund's investment staff to commit up to $200 million to Harrison Street Social Infrastructure Fund during a board meeting Thursday.

The fund, which will seek investments in educational, municipal and utility sectors in the U.S., is managed by Harrison Street Real Estate Capital. The money manager previously managed a U.S. real estate investment trust separate account for the Austin-based fund that was terminated in 2015.

Also approved at the meeting were four commitments totaling up to $250 million from TMRS' private equity portfolio.

The largest commitment was up to $100 million to Foundry Group Next 2018 Partner Fund. The new fund is a co-investment fund affiliated with the firm's latest venture capital fund, Foundry Group Next 2018. TMRS committed $45 million to the main fund in March last year.

TMRS earmarked up to $50 million each to three private equity funds, including existing manager Providence Equity Partners' private equity fund Providence Strategic Growth Fund IV. The fund's managers will seek lower- and middle-market investments in software and technology-enabled companies in the U.S and western Europe.

TMRS investment officers chose two new managers for the two remaining up-to-$50-million private equity commitments: Arcline Investment Management's Arcline Capital Partners and Reverence Capital Partners Opportunities Fund II.

Arcline's fund will seek buyout investments in middle-market industrial companies while Reverence Capital Partners' portfolio managers will focus on finding buy out opportunities in middle-market financial-services companies. The geographic focus of the two private equity funds could not be learned.