Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund has officially announced major changes to its portfolio. The pension fund had been reviewing its investments since the summer, but it wasn’t known when the process would end.
The shifts include doubling its equity allocations, cutting bonds by nearly 50 percent and a new target allocation for alternatives of 5 percent.
From Business Week:
Japan’s public retirement-savings manager will put half its holdings in local and foreign stocks and start investing in alternative assets as the world’s biggest pension fund seeks higher returns.
The 127.3 trillion yen ($1.1 trillion) Government Pension Investment Fund set allocation targets of 25 percent each for Japanese and overseas equities, up from 12 percent each, it said at a briefing today in Tokyo. GPIF will reduce domestic bonds to 35 percent of assets from 60 percent. The new figures don’t include an allocation to short-term assets, while the previous targets did. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg this month had anticipated levels of 24 percent for local stocks, 15 percent for global shares and 40 percent for Japanese bonds, taking short-term holdings into account.
The new allocations were released hours after the Bank of Japan unexpectedly added to monetary easing, sending the Nikkei 225 Stock Average to a seven-year high. Reports that the fund’s announcement was coming today also buoyed shares. Investors have been awaiting the revised strategy since a government panel said last year GPIF was too reliant on domestic bonds, with the central bank stoking inflation and pension payouts mounting as the nation’s population ages.
GPIF increased its target for foreign bonds to 15 percent, up from 11 percent. The fund will put as much as 5 percent of holdings in alternative investments such as private equity, infrastructure and real estate, with those accounted for within the other asset classes rather than as a separate allocation.
The Government Pension Investment Fund is the largest public pension fund in the world. It manages $1.1 trillion in assets.
Photo by Ville Miettinen
