Ohio BWC pulls fund investment

The insurance fund has made a full redemption from TH Real Estate’s US core fund following the restructuring of the vehicle.

The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) has opted to redeem its investment in TH Real Estate’s US core fund after the vehicle was restructured earlier this year.

The Columbus, Ohio-based insurance fund had invested $50 million in TIAA-CREF Core Property Fund in 2012, according to board minutes. Earlier this fall, London-based TH Real Estate, then known as TIAA, revamped the open-ended vehicle into the US Cities Fund series, PERE previously reported. The open-ended core fund now has a master vehicle and four underlying sector funds to invest in retail, multifamily, office and industrial real estate. Concurrent with the fund launch, TIAA’s US real estate operations were integrated into TH Real Estate, forming a global investment manager focused on third-party real estate investment management.

TH Real Estate originally restructured the fund after hearing that investors wanted a more property-type-specific approach, executives told PERE in September. After the change, BWC fully redeemed its investment last month.

“The trigger was the restructuring and the complicated nature of it,” Bruce Dunn, BWC’s chief investment officer, told PERE. “We were not envisioning this fund being broken up into four sector funds.”

PERE understands that other groups have also redeemed their investments following the restructuring, although it is unclear whether the redemptions were the result of the changes to the fund. A spokeswoman for TH Real Estate declined to give the number of or the names of investors that have pulled out of the fund.

“As always, our priority is maximizing value and operating the fund in the best interests of clients,” Randy Giraldo, the fund’s managing director, told PERE.

TH Real Estate manages $96.2 billion in assets, according to its website.