Calpers, the US’s biggest pension fund, which this week unveiled the steepest drop in its assets in its 80-year history, has agreed to buy back a portfolio of 86 US shopping centres for $1.73bn, about $1bn less than it sold it for four years ago.

Calpers, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, and its joint venture partner First Washington Realty, will buy a majority stake in the shopping centres from Macquarie CountryWide Trust, the indebted Australian group that bought the portfolio for just over $2.7bn in 2005.