Calpers Pension to Sell $3 Billion of Real-Estate Portfolio

Bloomberg reports:

The California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the biggest U.S. pension, plans to sell as much as $3 billion of its real-estate portfolio, a move that’s part of a broader plan to reduce costs, risk and the number of external investment managers.

The $303 billion fund will sell about 12 percent of its $25.5 billion real-estate program of commercial, industrial and residential assets. The move will let the fund invest in assets and managers that are more in line with the fund’s current strategy, Paul Mouchakkaa, Calpers’ senior investment officer for real assets, said in a statement Tuesday.

“The sale of these assets represents the continued effort to reduce costs, risk and complexity across the Calpers fund,” he said.

New York-based Park Hill Group Inc. has been chosen to help with the sale. The total amount for sale could vary based on conditions in the real-estate market and how much it can absorb, the fund said in the statement.

The supply of real estate might get bigger.