Japan’s $1.25 trillion Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) is looking for investment consultants to advise on its underweight allocation to alternatives.
The pension fund is targeting a 5 percent allocation to alternatives, however as at the end of March 2016, it had only invested about 0.06 percent in alternatives, with ÂĄ1.9 billion in private equity, and ÂĄ81.4 billion in infrastructure through co-investments with external institutional investors, the fund said in a report.
To help Japan’s largest pension fund get up to weight GPIF is seeking external advice and has issued a request for proposal (RFP), in Japanese, on its website with applications due by 5pm, Japan Standard Time on 14 November 2016. Interested candidates can obtain explanatory materials by emailing choutatsu-t08@gpif.go.jp.
The consultant selection will be done through a competitive bidding process, and the successful advisors will have a mandate lasting until 31 March 2020, according to the request for proposal posted on the GPIF website.
In its annual report published on 29 July, GPIF reported it lost ¥5.3 trillion ($52 billion; €47 billion) in fiscal 2015, driven by disappointing returns from its holdings of domestic equities, which fell 10.8 percent.