ACCESS seeks real estate talent

The ACCESS Pool, which manages £35 billion of assets on behalf of its 11 participating pension funds, has invited tenders for a UK core direct real estate investment manager and a global real estate (fund of funds) allocator.

The UK core mandate is anticipated to be between £0.75 billion and £1.25 billion, with the global mandate weighing in at £400 million, with potential to grow thereafter in both cases.

These will be 30 year mandates, subject to a five yearly review cycle and procured through two separate tenders, both carried out as two-stage restricted procedures.

At the end of March 2022, ACCESS had pooled investments of £35.1 billion across equity, fixed income, and diversified growth funds. The addition of the two real estate searches are expected to bring additional pooling of assets.

MJ Hudson will provide support to the pool in selecting individual investment opportunities and investment managers to build portfolios in a range of illiquid assets, having been announced in January 2022 as implementation adviser for the pooling of illiquid assets including private equity, private debt, infrastructure, and real estate.

Real estate is the first illiquid asset class to be considered for pooling within private markets for ACCESS.