Japanβs Β₯162trn Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF), the worldβs largest pension fund, has hired DBJ Asset Management to invest in infrastructure.
DBJ will βfocus mainly on opportunities in Japanβ, according to GPIFβs website.
The appointment comes a year after GPIF issued a request for proposals for infrastructure and real estate multi-managers.
More recently, it hired Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management Company and StepStone Infrastructure & Real Assets, and Nomura Asset Management and Pantheon, respectively, for two global infrastructure mandates.
In December, it hired Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation for a domestic real estate mandate.
The industry is still waiting for the pension fund to award a global real estate mandate.
Yukihiko Ito, managing partner of Japanese placement agency Asterisk Realty, who has been tracking GPIFβs moves into alternative investments, said: βThis is the first major action made by GPIF since the fiscal year started in April.
βWe expect they will make further announcements as they are expected to expand investment approaches over [fund-of-funds] investment later this year. The market is watching their announcement for appointment of overseas real estate [fund-of-funds] manager.β
