Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association (LACERA) has dropped Invesco Real Estate as one of its separate-account managers, as it reconfigures its real estate portfolio.

According to a board meeting document, the $506m (€418m) portfolio managed by Invesco will be transferred to Clarion Partners, another separate-account manager.

LACERA said the move was made due to underperformance by Invesco as well as a desire to consolidate and reduce its separate accounts in favour of open-ended core funds. 

An Invesco spokesperson told Âé¶¹Ó³»­ Real Assets: “We had a wonderful 25-plus year relationship with LACERA. Over the past 17 years, our business and the industry has evolved from a focus solely on separate accounts to a balance between separate accounts and funds.

“We embrace and support LACERA’s evolution towards funds and look forward to continuing our relationship through our commingled funds.â€�

The board meeting document shows that Invesco underperformed the ODCE core US property fund benchmark over, three, five and 10-year periods, although it outperformed by 0.05% since inception.

The underperformance was attributed primarily to two large retail investments in New York and Pennsylvania, which have a combined value of $149m.

The portfolio also includes two industrial assets in Southern California worth a combined $150m, office buildings in Houston and Dallas worth $142.5m, and an apartment complex in Denver valued at $64.5m.

LACERA also said a different manager could bring a fresh perspective to managing assets, including the two retail properties.

Heitman and Stockbridge, two of LACERA’s separate-account managers, were considered alongside Clarion Partners to take over the portfolio.

DWS was ruled out due to concentration risk. The company already manages a $1.9bn of assets for the pension fund, representing 35% of its real estate portfolio.

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