Latest news with #GPIF
Business Recorder
8 hours ago
- Business
- Business Recorder
JGBs inch down amid caution for US inflation data
TOKYO: Japanese government bonds inched lower on Tuesday as investors awaited a key U.S. consumer inflation report later in the day to assess the outlook for interest rates. The two-year JGB yield rose 0.5 basis point (bp) to 0.77% and the five-year yield rose 1 bp to to 1.045%. Yields move inversely to bond prices. 'Investors cannot make active bets as they are not sure in which way the price data will move,' said Naoya Hasegawa, chief bond strategist at Okasan Securities. The market also awaited an auction for five-year bonds in the next session, which may witness a stable outcome. 'The auction will not receive strong demand given the current level of the five-year bond yield. But there is little upward pressure on the yields, so there will not be any negative surprise,' Hasegawa said. Also, the auction may be supported by demand from pension funds, which need to rebalance their portfolios amid a sharp recent rally in Japanese stocks. Pension funds, such as the Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF), have allocation targets for each asset in their portfolios. When stocks rise, they need to boost bond holdings to maintain that composition. Both Japan's Nikkei share average and the broader Topix rose to a record high on Tuesday. The 10-year JGBs have not been traded as of 0450 GMT. The 20-year JGB yield rose 1 bp to 2.52%. The 30-year JGB yield rose 2 bps to 3.090%.
Japan Times
11 hours ago
- Business
- Japan Times
Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund is hiring amid ballooning assets
Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund, one of the world's largest retirement funds, is about to increase its unusually small staff as the assets it oversees balloon. GPIF, which managed ¥260 trillion ($1.8 trillion) in assets at the end of June, only has 187 employees, versus 676 at Norway's Government Pension Fund Global, which oversaw the equivalent of $1.92 trillion at the end of 2024. Similarly, large retirement funds in Canada and California manage less than a third of what GPIF does, but each has more than 2,000 people on payroll. GPIF's small staff size stems from its early days after its founding in 2006, when the organization outsourced most of its investments and put a majority of its funds in domestic bonds. Reflecting a global shift by pension plans toward riskier investments to bolster returns, Tokyo-based GPIF now earmarks about half of its funds to Japanese and foreign shares, and it also puts money in alternative assets such as private equity. "More high-level specialized staffers need to be secured,' said Kazuto Uchida, who was appointed the fund's president and began his term in April. "As the scope of our operations grows, risk management will also be extremely important' to monitor various areas such as alternative assets and environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles, he said in an interview. The organization expects personnel expenses to reach ¥18.2 billion in total during its five-year business plan period that started in April, an 80% increase from the previous half-decade. Uchida declined to elaborate on how those expenditures will be divided up. He didn't indicate how many new staff may be hired. The planned staff additions indicate the pressure on GPIF to boost returns to help support retirees financially in one of the world's fastest aging populations. It's also considering ways to manage risks as Japan's markets for assets including bonds turn more volatile due to factors such as higher interest rates and U.S. policy swings. Retaining qualified employees may pose challenges for the fund. Salary packages at GPIF tend to be less than those at both domestic and foreign financial firms in Japan, and for equivalent positions at major pension funds abroad. Remuneration levels at GPIF peak at about ¥16 million, or around $108,000 for managing directors, according to the fund's data analyzed by Bloomberg. That compares with median pay levels of about $140,000 for similar top non-executive positions at Japanese financial institutions, and more than $300,000 for those in foreign banking firms operating in the country. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, which managed around 714 billion Canadian dollars ($518 billion) in assets as of March, and California Public Employees' Retirement System, or CalPERS, which oversaw about $565 billion, both surpassed GPIF in terms of pay. Total salaries for CalPERS investment managers start above $200,000 and managing directors at CPP Investments earn almost $300,000 even at the bottom of the range, according to data from job search site Glassdoor. Japan's health, labor and welfare ministry, which oversees GPIF, held an expert panel meeting late last year about the fund. The panel members agreed that in the long term it was crucial to avoid employees moving to other firms, while a ministry official said it's necessary to review if GPIF's compensation is in line with that of the overall industry. GPIF has already taken some steps to hold on to staff and increase expertise, extending in April the retirement age for regular employees to 65 from 60. It's also started hiring new graduates for the first time specifically as investment specialists, jobs that were only available to experienced mid-career applicants in the past. The fund said it's seeking university students studying math, science or economics.
Bloomberg
15 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund Is Hiring as Assets Balloon
Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund, one of the world's largest retirement funds, is about to increase its unusually small staff as the assets it oversees balloon. GPIF, which managed ¥260 trillion ($1.8 trillion) in assets at the end of June, only has 187 employees, versus 676 at Norway's Government Pension Fund Global, which oversaw the equivalent of $1.92 trillion at the end of 2024. Similarly, large retirement funds in Canada and California manage less than a third of what GPIF does, but each has more than 2,000 people on payroll.
CNA
01-08-2025
- Business
- CNA
Japan's GPIF posts $68 billion investment gain in Q1
TOKYO :Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) said on Friday that it booked an investment gain of 10.2 trillion yen ($67.74 billion) for the April-June period. It posted strong gains in its domestic and foreign stock portfolios. The result compares with a gain of 8.97 trillion yen over the same period a year prior. The fund booked a smaller gain on foreign bonds and a slim loss on domestic bonds. In the year ended March it posted an annual investment gain of $11.8 billion, its fifth consecutive year of investment gains. The fund is one of the world's largest institutional investors, with total assets of 260 trillion yen at the end of June. It is closely watched by financial markets due to its mammoth size. ($1 = 150.5800 yen)
Japan Times
25-07-2025
- Business
- Japan Times
Japan's top pension fund keeps strategy amid volatility
The Government Pension Investment Fund plans to maintain its asset allocation targets even as a U.S. trade deal whipsaws financial markets and fiscal concerns pummel domestic government bonds. "Short-term moves in the market will not affect our management at all,' GPIF President Kazuto Uchida said in his first media interview since taking charge of the $1.7 trillion fund in April. "We need to monitor the global economy and the impact of tariffs but when you look at market conditions, there is no need to change our model portfolio.' As it seeks to ride out the latest surge in volatility, Japan's largest pension fund aims to enhance portfolio rebalancing with futures and analyze correlations between different assets. The GPIF, which splits assets evenly between stocks and bonds, incurred quarterly losses earlier this year on all four of its asset classes for the first time since 2022. Uchida said the latest trade deal between the U.S. and Japan should have a "positive impact' on the stock market. The Topix is headed for a record high after U.S. President Donald Trump announced he was reducing a threatened 25% tariff on Japan to 15%. The GPIF head also said the fund can cope with the recent spike in volatility of domestic debt. Yields have jumped amid concern that Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba may hand off to a successor who increases government spending or reduces taxes. The fund has set up a team to study alternative investments, which it has increased rapidly since 2021. "If there are good opportunities, we will increase our holdings further but we need to be convinced that there will be excess returns. That is becoming difficult,' Uchida said. In addition to navigating short-term market fluctuations, GPIF is also taking a long-term view by expanding its focus on sustainability. An evolution of investment related to environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategies to address a wider set of objectives can help support returns and economic growth, according to Japan's pension fund, which ranks among the world's top green investors. ESG strategies are "evolving into sustainability, which addresses a wider range of themes,' Uchida said in an interview. "Whether it's the environment, society or corporate governance, improving these areas ultimately leads to the growth of the global economy, and the growth of capital markets.' GPIF held about ¥18.2 trillion ($123.6 billion) of assets tracking ESG indexes at the end of March — or 14.7% of the fund's equity investments — up from ¥17.8 trillion a year earlier, bucking a wider global trend of investors paring back their green exposure. ESG-labeled funds have experienced record outflows as funds shun a strategy that's struggled with below-average returns and political backlash, particularly in the U.S. Norway's $1.9 trillion Norges Bank Investment Management and GPIF are regarded as rare examples of major investors that are continuing to support sustainability-related strategies. "Incorporating sustainability into the investment chain and having all stakeholders consider it, this leads to long-term revenue growth for investors, as well as benefits for society as a whole, the economy as a whole — such as job creation, expansion and wage increases,' said Uchida. The fund issued new guidelines earlier this year backing sustainability-related investments and emphasized that managing risks is paramount to achieving long-term growth across portfolios. The Financial Services Agency said in December that it was discussing the timing and application of a framework for sustainability-disclosure standards.
