SBCERS marches towards its 2020 strategic goals

The US pension is making strides in realizing its commitment plans for 2020.

Institution: Santa Barbara County Employees’ Retirement System
Headquarters: Goleta, US
AUM: $3.23 billion
Allocation to real estate: 9.50%

Santa Barbara County Employees’ Retirement System plans to invest up to $15 million in international opportunities in 2020 and confirmed three private real estate fund commitments across value added and opportunistic vehicles, according to its August 2020 retirement board meeting documents.

___________________________________________________________________

  • Committed $25 million of its $60 million target for 2020 to three funds: an additional $5 million to Citymark Capital U.S. Apartment Fund II, and $10 million each to Walton Street Real Estate Fund IX and Lubert-Adler Workforce Housing Fund.
  • The pension plans to only commit to funds employing value-added and/or opportunistic strategies. As of March 31, 2020, the core strategy accounted for 72 percent of the real estate portfolio’s market value.
  • As of June 30, 2020, the value of its private real estate portfolio was approximately $305 million, which accounts for 9.5 percent of its entire investment portfolio.
  • As of March 31, 2020, the private real estate portfolio since-inception net internal rate of return was 8.4 percent, whereas it was approximately 8.8 percent at the end of last year.

____________________________________________________________________

SBCERS has been investing in private real estate funds since 2006. The pension’s recent commitments have been to funds that focus primarily on value added vehicles in North America.

Greg Levin is SBCERS’ chief executive officer. Prior to joining the institution in 2014, Levin served as principal at Gregory E. Levin & Associates, where he led all aspects of accounting and consultancy practice. Lauren Thompson is the assistant CEO, investments & finance and has been at the pension since 2014. The pension’s real estate consultant is ORG Portfolio Management.

Platinum subscribers may click here for the investor’s full profile, including key contacts, allocation strategy and fund investments.