Florida SBA makes first Landmark commitment

Florida State Board of Administration has committed to a Landmark Partners fund, its first real estate secondaries commitment.

The pension finalised a $100 million commitment to Landmark Real Estate Partners VIII on 30 March, according to a spokesman. SBA is investing with a secondaries manager other than Ardian or Lexington for the first time.

That was the same day Fund VIII hit final close on $3.3 billion, nearly double the amount raised for the previous fund in the series, Secondaries Investor reported. The fund was 42 percent committed across six transactions at the time of final close.

“Landmark estimates real estate secondary transaction volume reached $6 billion in 2017, and LREF VIII’s deployment is off to a strong start,” said Francisco Borges, chairman and managing partner.

Florida SBA’s commitment was made by its real estate team and is not connected with its private equity secondaries portfolio, the spokesman said.

The pension’s private equity secondaries portfolio is split 62:38 percent between Lexington Partners and Ardian, according to materials prepared for its 11 June investment committee meeting. Lexington Partners represents the pension’s largest GP position, accounting for 10 percent of total private equity exposure.

Florida SBA’s secondaries holdings have achieved a since-inception net internal rate of return of 15.9 percent against the Cambridge Associates benchmark of 12.8 percent, the documents show.

It has a 6.3 percent allocation to private equity, according to data from Private Equity International.