LONDON—AXA Real Estate Investment Managers says it has that it has been appointed by the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, the largest public retirement system in the state, to manage a new $184 million (€135M) investment account, targeting value-add investment opportunities in Europe.

The fund will predominately focus on mainstream value-add investments primarily in Northern Europe.

TRS delivers retirement and related benefits authorized by the Texas Legislature and currently manages approximately $120 billion trust fund established to finance member benefits. It is the sixth-largest public pension plan in the U.S. and among the 20 largest funds in the world. More than 1.3 million public education and higher education employees and retirees participate in the system.

“An increasing number of US institutions are seeking exposure to value-accretive investment opportunities in Europe and this new mandate underlines AXA Real Estate's capacity to fulfill that demand by bringing real estate expertise to US investors and to deploy US capital in Europe," said Pierre Vaquier, CEO of AXA. “It is also one of our key strategic priorities to leverage the expertise of AXA Real Estate's market leading European real estate investment and asset management platform, both for the benefit of our clients as well as to enable us to organically grow a truly global footprint. This new mandate demonstrates our ability to achieve both these objectives.”