Tag: active investments

Japan Pension Hires Four Managers to Oversee Equities in Wake of Portfolio Overhaul

Japan

Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund in 2014 decided to make major changes to its portfolio, including a doubling of its equity allocation from 25 to 50 percent.

The pension fund this week hired four external managers to oversee portions of the fund’s equity portfolio.

From Bloomberg:

The $1.1 trillion Government Pension Investment Fund picked Schroder Investment Management Ltd., Daiwa SB Investments Ltd. and Nomura Asset Management Co. to oversee Japanese traditional active investments, and UBS Global Asset Management for foreign active holdings, it said today. GPIF didn’t say how much money the funds would manage.

[…]

“Passive stock holdings had become extremely high, so it looks like they’re trying to adjust this,” said Kenji Shiomura, a Tokyo-based senior strategist at Daiwa Securities Group Inc. “Also, there are limits to how much some of their existing managers, like their engagement fund, can oversee. As they increase stocks, they’re trying to avoid a situation where their share of passive investments increases further.”

GPIF had 14 active Japanese equity funds managing a total 2.6 trillion yen as of March 31, compared with 10 passive funds with 18.3 trillion yen. For foreign stocks, 15 funds managed 2.1 trillion yen in active investments, compared with six funds overseeing 17.6 trillion yen in passive strategies.

GPIF manages $1.1 trillion in assets, and is the largest pension fund in the world.

 

Photo by Ville Miettinen via FLickr CC License

Survey: 88% of Pension Funds Prefer Hiring Firms They’ve Already Worked With

balance. retirement decision

A recent survey from consulting firm Aon Hewitt suggests that pension funds looking to hire consultants or outsource investment management duties will overwhelmingly consider firms they’ve already worked with over those they haven’t.

This survey comes from Britain—but it’s a safe bet that funds in the U.S. behave similarly.

Reported by Financial News:

Pension funds that are contemplating bringing in a fiduciary manager – a single firm to take on most, if not all, active investment responsibilities – are overwhelmingly more likely to employ a firm they already know rather than a newcomer, a survey for consultancy Aon Hewitt suggests.

Only 12% of 125 funds said they would bring in a firm they did not already employ.

In choosing among firms that already worked for them, 59% would go for their consultant and 30% for a fund manager.

[…]

Sion Cole, head of client solutions at Aon Hewitt, who is responsible for its £6.2 billion fiduciary business, said: “Fiduciary management has to be built on a level of trust. What we’re seeing is that pension trustees are going out to market, assessing their options and then appointing someone they know and trust to do that job.”