Life insurance giant MetLife is teaming with the nation’s third-largest public pension fund to form a new real estate investment venture.
MetLife is partnering with the New York State Common Retirement Fund, after selling the pension fund a 49.9 percent stake in an investment portfolio comprising seven properties valued at more than $1.4 billion.
The properties total around 3.7 million square feet of mostly office space located in “major U.S. markets,” MetLife said. MetLife Investment Management will oversee the new joint venture, with the insurer remaining the majority owner of the portfolio, according to Reuters.
The partnership comes one week after MetLife announced plans to separate a sizable portion of its U.S. retail business, in wake of federal regulators investigating the company’s “systemically important financial institution,” or SIFI, designation.
The label was created after the global financial crisis last decade and means the company is deemed too big to fail by regulators – requiring MetLife to hold higher levels of capital. [Reuters] – Rey Mashayekhi