Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF), the world's largest pension fund with JPY 158.6 tln (€1.2 tln) of assets under management, has awarded its first global property mandate, appointing CBRE Global Investment Partners as funds of funds (FoF) manager and Asset Management One Co as gatekeeper.
The mandate is part of the pension fund's plan to broaden its exposure to alternative investments.
Earlier this year, GPIF divided global real estate markets into US and non-US regions when launching a request for proposals (RFP) to recruit alternative fund managers. It is expected that GPIF will shortly announce appointments of multiple FoF managers and gatekeepers for their global real estate investment strategy.
Between January and April, GPIF announced several appointments relating to its global infrastructure mandate.
The latest announcement follows the RFP launched in April 2017 to implement an alternative investments 'multi-manager' strategy through FoF in pursuit of fund investments and co-investments.
All funds are focused on core type and the targeted region is divided in Japan and developed countries excluding Japan. The funds are limited to unlisted and non-leveraged, to pursue higher returns in FoF.
According to GPIF, the move reflects growing interest across the Japanese insitutional investment scene to move into global real estate investment, with domestic pension funds, financial institutions, insurance companies, listed REITs and real estate developers looking at overseas markets.
GPIF first signalled its intention to launch a global real estate investment strategy when it appointed global expert Hideto Yamada as new property head, who joined from Tokyo-headquartered global investor Mitsui Fudosan in February of this year.
