Will GPIF's New CIO Rise to the Challenge?
GPIF Names Private Equity Executive as Investment Head:...MUCH MORE
The world’s biggest manager of retirement savings named a private-equity executive as head of investment after the Japanese fund changed its strategy to seek higher returns.
Hiromichi Mizuno, 49, a partner at London-based Coller Capital Ltd., becomes the first chief investment officer at the $1.1 trillion Government Pension Investment Fund from Jan. 5, the fund announced late yesterday. Mizuno, who joined the fund’s investment committee in July, will lead moves to reduce domestic debt and boost equity holdings to half of assets.
The retirement manager overhauled its asset mix on Oct. 31, pledging to shift $182 billion into stocks as unprecedented quantitative easing by the Bank of Japan risks eroding the value of its bond-heavy portfolio. Mizuno’s appointment comes as a health ministry group debates changes to the fund’s governance, after a separate government panel called on it to move beyond a system in which decision-making power lies with the president.
GPIF set allocation targets of 25 percent each for Japanese and overseas equities last month, up from 12 percent each. The pension manager will cut local debt holdings to 35 percent from 60 percent and boost foreign debt allocations to 15 percent from 11 percent.
