Investors

Along with those of Stanford and British Columbia, Harvard University’s $37bn endowment has scored top marks for sustainable investment. Harvard's endowment, an active private equity LP, returned 8.6 percent for the fiscal year ended 30 June.

The Oregon Investment Council has committed $100m to Riverstone/Carlyle Renewable & Alternative Energy Fund II and $200m to Alinda’s latest infrastructure vehicle.

The real estate investment arm of insurer Prudential Financial and Hong Kong company Minmetals are reportedly buying a 99 percent stake in a housing project in Nanjing, China.

The Illinois State Universities Retirement System has chosen to pursue its long-term private equity target allocation through continued investment while other LPs are pulling back on the asset class in an effort to combat over-weighting.

The asset management arm of Dutch banking group Rabobank is raising its second fund of funds dedicated to responsible investing and outperforming ‘mainstream private equity’.

The $80.1bn Washington State Investment Board has approved $1.7bn in commitments, including $900m to two RE funds. The pension also committed $600m to private equity funds and $250m to infrastructure and commodities.

The fall-out from the collapse of investment banking giant Lehman Brothers could have long-term implications on the real estate investing marketplace, according to private equity real estate professionals, but at the moment most investors are adopting a wait-and-see attitude.

The publicly listed fund of funds is now trading at almost a 50 percent discount to NAV. In a statement, the fund says it is “hopeful” that a deal for Lehman’s asset management and alternatives units “will be made within a very short period of time”.

Confronting an increasingly overweighted private equity portfolio, CalPERS has made $700m in commitments to real estate funds and almost $1bn to four private equity funds.

The property developer and fund manager is reportedly talking to investors about raising another India real estate vehicle. It follows Tishman’s decision to buy out ICICI’s stake in their joint venture company, TSI Ventures India.