ASIA - South Korea's National Pension Service (NPS) has entered into a joint venture with private equity firm The Carlyle Group to purchase an office building in Tokyo.

The world's fourth largest pension fund said in a statement that the KDX Toyosu Grandsquare building, acquired for €260m according to Real Capital Analytics, was expected to yield a stable rental income over the long-term.

The office building is 95% occupied and is home to tenants Mitsubishi UFJ Securities, NTT Data Systems and Ricoh.

NPS paid 4.9% of the purchase price, the balance being funded by Carlyle, and is likely to be the first of a number of direct investments in prime commercial real estate in major global centres.

NPS is allocating 5% of its investments in 2009 to alternative asset classes.