Florida SBA recommits to Tristan

The Florida State Board of Administration (SBA) committed €50 million ($77 million) to Tristan Capital Partners’ latest value-added and opportunistic fund in the third quarter.

The London-based private equity real estate firm hit its €1.5 billion hard cap for European Property Investors Special Opportunities 4 (EPISO IV) after only four months of fundraising. The firm is targeting a 15 percent ‘triple net’ annual return to investors for EPISO IV and will invest in Western and Central European markets across the office, logistics, retail and residential sectors.

SBA’s commitment came after a €55 million commitment to EPISO III in January 2014. That fund has a return of -10.9 percent, according to SBA. John Kuzwanski said that the commitment to EPISO IV was part of SBA’s ongoing efforts to diversify its real estate portfolio.

The Tallahassee, Florida-based pension plan oversees $175.1 assets under management, as of October 30. Earlier real estate commitments overseas included €50 million commitments each to JP Morgan European IP Fund III in August 2014 and Capman Nordic Real Estate Fund in December 2014.

SBA joined 33 other investors in Tristan’s latest fund, including the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, which committed $150 million, and the San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System, which committed $100 million. About half of the capital for Tristan EPISO IV came from investors in the US, 25 percent was from Europe and 25 from Asia-Pacific. The fund has a total of 34 investors.

In September, Tristan inked a joint venture with Dutch operating partner Timeless Investments to acquire the vast majority of Italian insurance giant Generali’s Dutch real estate portfolio for €212 million using capital from Tristan EPISO IV. The partners bought 39 properties, with the majority in Amsterdam’s central district.

The Townsend Group, a Cleveland, Ohio-based institutional real estate consultant, advised SBA on the fund commitment.