Japan's ¥126.6 trillion ($1.25 trillion) Government Pension Investment Fund, Tokyo, in an annual report released July 4, provided a snapshot of leading asset gatherers in a year of extensive changes to the pension giant's external manager lineup.
Goldman Sachs Asset Management, newly added to the GPIF's list of actively managed domestic equity managers earlier this year, oversaw ¥404 billion as of the March 31 end of the fund's fiscal year, second only to Nomura Asset Management Co.'s ¥527.5 billion. Nomura's total was down from ¥744 billion the year before.
Other active domestic equity managers garnering new mandates of ¥100 billion or more were: Capital International KK, ¥279.2 billion; Nikko Asset Management Co., ¥176.1 billion; FIL Investments (Japan) Ltd., ¥154 billion; Harris Associates LP, ¥104.6 billion; and Eastspring Investments, ¥100.4 billion.
Smaller mandates went to Dimensional Fund Advisors LP, with ¥76.9 billion and Russell Investments, ¥30.8 billion.
Taiyo Pacific Partners LP — a Seattle-based activist shareholder boutique the GPIF highlighted in its April announcement of the revamped active domestic equity manager lineup — was managing ¥5.1 billion as of March 31.
Among active domestic equity managers retained from the prior year, J.P. Morgan Asset Management (Japan) Ltd., oversaw ¥303.3 billion, down from ¥367 billion the year before; DIAM Co. Ltd. had ¥279 billion; Invesco Asset Management (Japan) Ltd. managed ¥102.9 billion, down from running ¥281 billion the year before in a different strategy; and Mizuho Asset Management Co. Ltd. had ¥20.3 billion, after affiliate Mizuho Trust & Banking managed ¥302 billion the year before.
Managers falling off the list from the previous year were Amundi Japan, which had overseen ¥524 billion in actively managed domestic equities as of March 31, 2013; Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, at ¥408 billion; Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking, ¥296 billion; BlackRock Japan, ¥215 billion; Daiwa SB Investments, ¥163 billion; Tokio Marine Asset Management, ¥139 billion; and Resona Bank, which had ¥62 billion.
Foreign managers oversaw a combined ¥1.484 trillion, or 58%, of the GPIF's ¥2.567 trillion allocation to actively managed domestic equities as of March 31, up from ¥1.397 trillion, or 37%, of a ¥3.726 trillion allocation, a year earlier.
In the past, money managers said the lure of hefty GPIF mandates was offset by extremely low fees. This year, some say, the introduction of performance-based fees could leave room for added upside.
For the latest fiscal year, MFS Investment Management KK continued to top the performance rankings among GPIF managers of active international equities, exceeding its benchmark by an annualized 441 basis points for the three years through March 31, and by 297 basis points for the five-year period.
As of March 31, MFS was managing ¥395 billion of GPIF money, up from ¥225 billion the year before.
Among international equity managers newly hired during the past year, the GPIF showed:
Wellington International Management with ¥238.9 billion; Nikko Asset Management, ¥179.1 billion; Baillie Gifford Overseas Ltd., ¥177.9 billion; Harris Associates, ¥171.6 billion, and Aberdeen Asset Managers Ltd., ¥79 billion.
Among managers retained from the previous year, the GPIF listed: Amundi Japan Ltd., at ¥243 billion, down from ¥328 billion; Wells Capital Management Inc., at ¥273.3 billion, up from ¥19 billion; Walter Scott & Partners Ltd., at ¥211.3 billion , up from ¥135 billion; Dimensional Fund Advisors LP, ¥33.2 billion, up from ¥19 billion; Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd., at ¥32.9 billion, down from ¥159 billion; Vontobel Asset Management Inc., at ¥27 billion, up from ¥19 billion; Lazard Japan Asset Management KK, at ¥26.7 billion, up from ¥18 billion, and Baring Asset Management Ltd., unchanged at ¥8 billion.
Some firms listed last year for actively managed international equities weren't found on the latest list, including State Street Global Advisors, which managed ¥259 billion as of March 31, 2013; BlackRock Institutional Trust Co., ¥251 billion; Principal Global Investors, ¥135 billion; and Pyramis Global Advisors, ¥132 billion.
