Japan Post Bank prepares for PE investment
Japan Post Bank plans to start making commitments to private equity funds in the first half of this year, according to Katsunori Sago, the bank’s vice president in charge of asset management.
Sago made the observation during an interview in which he stressed that the bank's drive to diversify assets will not be affected by recent declines in public markets, The Japan Times reported. In house investments in listed equities are slated to begin in the second half of 2016.
Japan Post Bank listed in November alongside its parent Japan Post Insurance. The bank's president, Masatsugu Nagato, said ahead of the listing that infrastructure, private equity and overseas real estate trusts would be considered as part of a more aggressive investment strategy.
As of September 2015, it had JPY205 trillion in assets, of which Japanese government bonds accounted for 45.2%. Sago said there are currently about 100 people involved in the asset management business and this should rise by at least 30% over the next 18-24 months. Equities investment duties are outsourced to trust banks due to the lack of in house resources.
The bank created a division to explore PE opportunities last December. It was led by Tokihiko Shimizu, who was instrumental in the Government Pension Investment Fund's (GPIF) push to diversify its assets and enter the alternatives space. However, Shimizu is now responsible for real estate, with Hideya Sadanaga, previously of Nissay Asset Management and Nippon Life Insurance, taking up the private equity brief.
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