Japan Post Bank’s PE appetite

Japan Post Bank, the country’s largest private equity investor by assets under management, has joined a growing number of LPs whose heads have been turned by co-investment opportunities.

In September, Tokihiko Shimizu, managing director and head of private markets investment at the bank, told PEI the investor would look more closely at more co-investment or club deals with GPs amid growing competition in Japanese private equity.

Japan Post Bank has a target allocation of 3 percent of its ¥209.6 trillion ($1.9 trillion; €1.6 trillion) in assets under management, or as much as $60 billion, for alternative investments, which includes private equity, hedge funds, infrastructure and real estate. Shimizu said the bank expects to allocate more than 70 percent of its private equity programme to primary investments, between 20 percent to 30 percent to secondaries and the rest in co-investments in the first three years.