The $120bn (£73bn) Teacher Retirement System of Texas has selected Axa Real Estate Investment Managers to manage a new €135m European investment mandate.
The mandate from the largest public retirement system in Texas will predominately focus on mainstream value-add investments primarily in Northern Europe.
TRS delivers retirement and related benefits authorised by the Texas legislature and currently manages a $120bn trust fund established to finance member benefits.
It is the sixth largest public pension plan in the US and among the 20 largest funds in the world. More than 1.3m public education and higher education employees and retirees participate in the system.
Pierre Vaquier, chief executive of Axa Real Estate, said: “An increasing number of US institutions are seeking exposure to value-accretive investment opportunities in Europe and this new mandate underlines AXA Real Estate’s capacity to fulfil that demand by bringing real estate expertise to US investors and to deploy US capital in Europe.
“It is also one of our key strategic priorities to leverage the expertise of Axa Real Estate’s market leading European real estate investment and asset management platform, both for the benefit of our clients as well as to enable us to organically grow a truly global footprint.
“This new mandate demonstrates our ability to achieve both these objectives.”
Olivier Thoral AXA Real Estate’s head of North America, added: “To win this US-into-Europe investment mandate from such a highly respected large scale investor as TRS is a huge endorsement of the progress we have made in establishing our business in the United States.”
bridget.o’connell@estatesgazette.com
