California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) believes it can maintain its return objectives for real estate over the coming 12 months, despite expecting capital appreciation in the asset class to slow or even stop.
For the fiscal year ending 30 June 2019, the pension fund has an absolute return objective of 7.7% and relative return objective to outperform the core US benchmark NFI-ODCE by 70bps.
As the $222.5 billion CalSTRS buttresses its ‘newish’ risk mitigation strategy — which grew to become a $20 billion asset class in 18 months — Carrie Lo is the solid and inquisitive portfolio manager leading the charge. She helped to establish the hedge fund incubation program five years prior, and gained knowledge to adjust RMS to generate or protect returns during a downturn based on Trend Following, Long Duration (currently U.S. Treasuries), Global Macro and Systematic Risk Premia allocations.
Infrastructure fund managers have been told to “raise your game” if they want to win business from the UK’s growing defined-contribution (DC) pensions sector, according to the CIO of NEST.
Speaking at a conference in London, Mark Fawcett, who oversees the investment strategy of the UK’s biggest DC pension scheme by membership, said the infrastructure investment industry needed to “completely recalibrate” some of its thinking to “access DC investors in the UK”.
CBRE Global Investors and a pension fund client just acquired 615 South College, a new Class A office tower in Charlotte for $222 million.
The sale of the 19-story, 375,865-square-foot office tower developed by Atlanta-based Portman Holdings recorded in county records Tuesday. The new office building was completed in 2017 next to Charlotte’s popular Westin Hotel and houses co-working firm WeWork.
In the late 19th century, inventors including Thomas Edison created electric lighting that all but ended demand for kerosene, then the biggest product made from petroleum. Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller, the forefather of Exxon Mobil Corp., was unmoved, seeing any price dip as a chance to buy up competitors.
“We must try and not lose our nerve when the market gets to the bottom as some people almost always do,” the founder of Standard Oil instructed his senior management in 1884. “We will surely make a mistake if we do not buy.”
More than 130 years later, with renewable energy growing and electric vehicles threatening the future of gasoline-powered cars, the strategy of Exxon, Standard Oil’s biggest successor, is largely the same: double down on oil.
Jack Ehnes, chief executive of CalSTRS and chairman of the FTSE environmental markets committee, said on the panel that the Californian pension giant is working hard on ensuring companies produce consistent ESG data. He continued that in a month the US accounting standards body will release guidance on material risk factors, which he hopes will include ESG.
Barron’s caught up with Christopher Ailman at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, Calif., this week to talk about guns, his push to make companies and investors think beyond a quarter, and what a Goldilocks market means for positioning.
C-Suite had the opportunity to speak with Anne Sheehan, the now-former Director of Corporate Governance for the California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS), about the changes she observed (and led) during her tenure. In addition, Sheehan shared her thoughts on what we can expect to see as the relationships between boards of directors and their shareholders continue to evolve.
Chris Ailman, chief investment officer at the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, discusses rising interest rates, bond yield, equity markets and gun control. He speaks with Bloomberg’s Erik Schatzker from the Milken Institute Global Conference on “Bloomberg Markets: Balance of Power.”
The social elements of ESG are often lumped in with environmental and governance issues – but investors are increasingly seeking information on social as a stand-alone matter.
In a push to find and grow operating partner relationships, the California State Teachers’ Retirement System is expanding its joint venture program with Belay Investment Group, PERE has learned.
The $222.5 billion pension, which managed $27.6 billion in real estate as of March 31, started working with Belay’s predecessor company in 2006 to identify smaller operating partners than CalSTRS would typically invest in. In 2016, CalSTRS committed $200 million to Belay’s ‘fund of joint ventures,’ Belay Partnership Ventures II, to invest in programmatic JVs across the US and across property types.
In the pre-dawn hours of March 7, 2017, a small statue of a confident girl appeared near Wall Street, just a few months after millions of women, including thousands of teachers, took to the streets in cities around the world on behalf of equal rights. Like the women’s marches, the Fearless Girl statue touched a raw nerve, inspired conversations and amplified the urgency to work toward a world in which gender no longer dictates limitations on what women can achieve. Other movements, such as the #MeToo and #TimesUp campaigns, shared the theme of enabling more women to find their voices and affirm the need for change.
Chris Ailman, chief investment officer at California State Teachers’ Retirement System, and Bloomberg’s Jason Kelly, discuss companies limiting gun sales and what it means for investors.
Whether it’s the impact of iPhones on kids or employee retraining, major investors are looking to corporate leaders to do more.
In January, BlackRock’s CEO and Chairman Laurence D. Fink sent a letter to executives at major companies to not only focus on profits but also the social good. The letter addressed a host of issues seen as creating the world’s polarization, including automation’s displacement of workers and the lack of secure retirements among low-income workers.
California’s massive public pension funds should not divest from holdings based on political winds, with notable exceptions. One involves investments in companies that make assault weapons that are illegal under California law. That effort gained traction after the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Let’s connect some dots.
As investors increasingly focus on the risk of climate change in their portfolios, a new report from Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) shows some oil and gas companies are exposing themselves to scrutiny by failing to adequately disclose meaningful information on emissions of methane, the heat-trapping pollutant that is drawing increased attention from the public.
The analysis demonstrates company reporting on methane has improved slightly, though unevenly, over the past two years since EDF first examined methane disclosure within the U.S. oil and gas industry in their report, Rising Risk. The quality of methane reporting has improved among the top companies, though 42 percent of the companies surveyed disclose nothing on their methane management practices.
More than 450 investor, company and capital market leaders convened at the Investor Summit on Climate Risk last week to map out the next steps for increased action on climate change. The strong showing of leaders, ranging from institutional investors to state and city pension fund fiduciaries and corporate executives, demonstrated the growing mainstream attention to one of the world’s most pressing problems.
“It is encouraging to see investors from around the world stepping up like never before to align their investments with the market opportunities created by the Paris Agreement and the low-carbon transitions,” said Mindy Lubber, CEO and President of Ceres.
The San Francisco Employees’ Retirement System (SFERS) will create a “carbon constrained” passive index equity strategy, one of the few pension plans in the US that is eliminating heavy carbon emitters from part of its stock portfolio.
The board of the $24 billion pension system approved Wednesday evening the move of $1 billion of its $5.1 billion US equity stock portfolio into the reduced-carbon index equity strategy.
As the state’s fiscal watchdog, California State Controller Betty Yee has a finger on the pulse of what is now the world’s sixth largest economy. But her influence reaches far beyond just paying the State’s bills. We sat down with her recently to talk about taxes, climate change and why she is compelled to address issues like human trafficking.
Anne Sheehan, Director of Corporate Governance at CalSTRS Investments, discusses the company urging Apple to create ways for parents to restrict children’s access to their mobile phones.
