Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund on Monday called on active managers of overseas high-yield corporate bonds to register with the asset manager registration system the pension fund launched in early 2016 to add flexibility to its manager selection process.
An announcement posted on the GPIF website said the ¥162.7 trillion ($1.5 trillion) pension fund plans to start reviewing high-yield managers on March 19 — less than two weeks before the close of the fund's fiscal year. Managers need to register on the pension fund's website.
GPIF had allocations to high-yield bond managers as of March 31, 2017 of just less than ¥300 billion — 3.9% of its ¥7.7 trillion allocation to actively managed overseas bonds and 0.21% of its broader portfolio, according to the annual report for the GPIF's prior fiscal year.
A GPIF spokeswoman declined to say if the pension fund is considering boosting its allocation to actively managed overseas high-yield bonds.
As of March 31, 2017, GPIF reported allocations to actively managed U.S. high-yield bond strategies of roughly ¥125 billion apiece with Tokyo-based Nomura Asset Management and New York-based MacKay Shields, as well as a ¥45 billion European high yield bond allocation with UBS Asset Management.