SURS releases 2023 real assets pacing plan

State Universities Retirement System of Illinois targets $200 million in real asset commitments in 2023.

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Name: State Universities Retirement System of Illinois
Headquarters: Champaign, US
AUM: $22.4 billion
Allocation to alternatives: 22.68%

State Universities Retirement System of Illinois has published its real assets pacing plan for 2023, according to materials from the pension fund’s December 2022 investment committee meeting.

Highlights included:

  • SURS aims to invest within a commitment range of $50 million to $100 million per fund. In total, the pension fund seeks to commit $200 million to close-ended real asset funds in FY 2023.
  • The public pension has set a policy target of 20 percent to be committed to emerging minority, women and disabled-owned funds (MWDB) over all asset classes. Since 2021, SURS has committed $170 million to MWDB-owned real assets funds, amounting to 29 percent of their real asset commitments.
  • The pension aims to diversify its geographical exposure by committing to European and Asian infrastructure funds.
  • SURS seeks to limit the total number of managers it invests with to 15. While focusing on maintaining relationships with existing managers, the public pension aims to hire new managers where larger commitment amounts are involved.

In 2022, SURS of Illinois committed a total of $250 million to closed-end real asset funds. Most recently, the pension fund committed $40 million to Homestead Capital USA’s Farmland Fund IV and $60 million to Longpoint Realty Fund III.

SURS also committed to these open-end real asset funds in 2022:

SURS of Illinois’ core real asset portfolio is managed by Callan, a San Francisco-based investment consultancy. The pension fund’s non-core real asset portfolio is managed by Aksia, a New York-based consultancy that also advises the fund on its private equity commitments.

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