CalPERS Bought Shares in 112 REITs Prior to Market Collapse

November 14 2008 - The California Public Employees’ Retirement System, already hit with multibillion-dollar real estate losses, invested in more than 100 property companies before their value collapsed in the weeks after Oct. 1.

The largest U.S. public pension fund bought shares of 112 real estate investment trusts in the third quarter with a combined value of about $482 million as of Sept. 30, according to a regulatory filing. The holdings are now valued at about $245 million.

Calpers also faces potential losses on its $970 million investment in LandSource Communities Development LLC, a 15,000- acre housing project north of Los Angeles that filed for bankruptcy protection in June. REITs, which had outperformed stocks for most of the year, were at the vanguard of the market collapse that began last month.

Calpers Bought Shares in 112 REITs Prior to Market Collapse
by Miles Weiss | Bloomberg