By Muskan Arora
The $24B Oklahoma Teachers’ Retirement System has earmarked $440M for its inaugural infrastructure pacing plan in 2025.
In March, the pension plan established a 3% allocation to its first-time infrastructure sleeve, while reducing its real estate allocation from 10% to 8%. During a recent board meeting, the System shared plans for its first commitment to the new portfolio, which it plans to implement during the second half of the year through two open-ended funds.
Aon Investments, the plan’s consultant, noted that investing in open-ended funds would provide an immediate long-term impact compared to that of close-ended funds. The consultant also pointed out that mid-market core-plus and value-add funds provide optimal value proposition for infrastructure investments.
Additionally, the System made a commitment of $100M to Ares Industrial Real Estate Fund, which is a core open-ended U.S. industrial fund. The core real estate pacing plan for the year is set at $200M, whereas the non-core real estate pacing stands at $100M.
Additionally, the pension plan also disclosed commitments of $400M to two private debt funds — KKR Scissor-Tail Credit Fund and Ares Private Credit Fund O — earmarking $200M to each. The pension plan allocates 3.6% or $829M to its private debt sleeve against a target allocation of 5%.
The pension plan returned 9.7%, 2.5% and 7.6% for its one-, three-, and five-year returns, underperforming benchmarks for each period (14.1%, 4.1% and 8.5%, respectively), as of December 31.
The board will next meet on May 21st.
