Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund hired Pantheon Ventures to manage a global core infrastructure fund-of-funds strategy for the ¥162.7 trillion ($1.53 trillion) pension fund.
An allocation size was not disclosed.
An announcement posted on the GPIF's website Tuesday said Pantheon was hired as a fund-of-funds manager, while Nomura Asset Management Co. was appointed as gatekeeper role for the allocation, responsible for middle- and back-office operations. Nomura has the local investment management registration needed to be party to a discretionary investment contract, while Pantheon does not.
The hire comes six weeks after GPIF announced its first global infrastructure manager selection, StepStone Group, in response to an April 2017 RFP seeking fund-of-funds managers for private equity, real estate and infrastructure.
A GPIF spokeswoman, in an email, didn't rule out the possibility that other infrastructure fund-of-funds managers could be retained. With the manager registration system the pension fund introduced in early 2016, GPIF can accept "applications anytime," leaving the door open for "additional selections of infrastructure managers," she said.
Pantheon and StepStone, in turn, will select managers of unlisted infrastructure, she said.
As of Dec. 31, GPIF reported an allocation to alternatives that stood at 10 basis points of its portfolio, or roughly ¥163 billion. The fund's target allocation for alternatives stands at 5%, or roughly ¥8.1 trillion.