The US’ largest union of long-term care workers, the Service Employees International Union, launched its ‘global day of action’ today targeting KKR, its portfolio company Toys R Us and pension funds and politicians in support of the buyout industry. Unite, the largest union in Britain, also joined the cause.
The pension fund has made commitments to five private equity and real estate funds, including $15m to the Arden Group’s $125m distressed real estate fund targeting the US and the Caribbean.
Starwood Capital’s latest global real estate fund has received $100m in commitments from two US pension funds, including New Mexico’s $13bn scheme and the $15.8bn Louisiana Teachers fund. New Mexico also committed a further $65m to private equity and real estate funds.
The long-time KKR loyalist will be the first public pension to invest in a “dedicated separate account” managed by KKR Fixed Income. The commitment dwarfs previous Oregon commitments to KKR’s buyout funds.
The US’ second largest public pension fund says it could cut the number of fund managers it works with as market conditions prompt it to review investment relationships. The pension says it will focus on those who ‘outperform in difficult markets.’
The US’ second largest pension fund has allocated $1bn to the growing asset class with California’s infrastructure needs to be given preference.
Millennium Group, a Hong Kong-based real estate investment firm, has partnered with Cambodia’s biggest mobile phone operator to build resorts, casinos and an airport on an island off the coast.
Allocations to the private equity and real estate asset classes are expected to rise by more than 20 percent over the next two years, a study by JP Morgan Asset Management has shown, as institutional investors reveal such strategies are no longer ‘alternative’ at all.
The quoted Swiss alternative asset manager saw its private markets business, including real estate and private equity, grow by $3.4bn over the past year. However foreign exchange and hedge fund outflows hit the overall increase in assets under management in its pre-close statement.
Retail investors were given a gloomy picture of the state of the market, after a report by UK property services firm, Colliers CRE, suggested that not only could real rents fall up to 20 percent over the next three years, but that capital values could also fall another 10 percent.