Illinois Teachers earmarks $200m to Carlyle

The Washington, DC-based firm is more than halfway to its $5bn fundraising goal for its latest opportunistic real estate vehicle.

The Teachers’ Retirement System of the State of Illinois has roped off $200 million for The Carlyle Group’s latest opportunistic real estate fund at its June meeting, the pension system said last week.

Washington, DC-based Carlyle started pre-marketing Carlyle Realty Partners VIII in the third quarter with a $5 billion target, PERE previously reported. The firm held a first close for CRP VIII in May on $2.9 billion, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A spokesman for Illinois TRS declined to comment.

Carlyle launched the predecessor vehicle in 2013 and closed it in December 2014 on the fund’s hard-cap of $4.2 billion, PERE previously reported. CRP VII had $2.4 billion invested and a 1.3x investment multiple as of March 31, according to Carlyle’s first-quarter earnings statement. The firm did not disclose gross or net returns for the fund, however.

CRP VI, a $2.3 billion, 2010-vintage vehicle, generated a 21 percent net internal rate of return as of the end of Q1.

Other investors in CRP VIII include the Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System, which earmarked $200 million, and the Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana and Texas County and District Retirement System, which each allocated $100 million, according to PERE data.

Illinois TRS also committed $100 million to CRP VII and $46 million to CRP IV, according to PERE data.

Carlyle’s opportunistic fund series focuses on acquisitions, value enhancements and dispositions of mispriced and undervalued real estate assets in the US, primarily single-asset transactions involving office, residential, senior living, hotel and retail properties. The firm plans to deploy most of CRP VIII’s capital to multifamily and “active adult living,” according to PennPSERS documents.

Rob Stuckey leads the firm's US real estate funds.

Illinois TRS’s $6.9 billion real estate portfolio returned 13.2 percent against a 10.6 percent benchmark in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2016, according to its most recent investment report. The pension system’s total $45.3 billion portfolio returned 0.01 percent against a 2.4 percent benchmark in the same period.