Skip to main content
MENU
Subscribe
  • Subscribe
  • Account
  • LOGIN
  • Topics
    • Alternatives
    • Consultants
    • Coronavirus
    • Courts
    • Defined Contribution
    • ESG
    • ETFs
    • Hedge Funds
    • Industry Voices
    • Investing
    • Money Management
    • Opinion
    • Partner Content
    • Pension Funds
    • Private Equity
    • Real Estate
    • Russia-Ukraine War
    • SECURE Act 2.0
    • Special Reports
    • White Papers
  • Rankings & Awards
    • 1,000 Largest Retirement Plans
    • Top-Performing Managers
    • Largest Money Managers
    • DC Money Managers
    • DC Record Keepers
    • Largest Hedge Fund Managers
    • World's Largest Retirement Funds
    • Best Places to Work in Money Management
    • Excellence & Innovation Awards
    • Eddy Awards
  • ETFs
    • Latest ETF News
    • Fund Screener
    • Education Center
    • Equities
    • Fixed Income
    • Commodities
    • Actively Managed
    • Alternatives
    • ESG Rated
  • ESG
    • Latest ESG News
    • The Institutional Investor’s Guide to ESG Investing
    • Climate Change: The Inescapable Opportunity
    • Impact Investing
    • 2022 ESG Investing Conference
    • ESG Rated ETFs
  • Defined Contribution
    • Latest DC News
    • DC Money Manager Rankings
    • DC Record Keeper Rankings
    • Innovations in DC
    • Trends in DC: Focus on Retirement Income
    • 2022 Defined Contribution East Conference
    • 2022 DC Investment Lineup Conference
  • Searches & Hires
    • Latest Searches & Hires News
    • Searches & Hires Database
    • RFPs
  • Performance Data
    • P&I Research Center
    • Earnings Tracker
    • Endowment Returns Tracker
    • Corporate Pension Contribution Tracker
    • Pension Fund Returns Tracker
    • Pension Risk Transfer Database
    • Future of Investments Research Series
    • Charts & Infographics
    • Polls
  • Careers
  • Events
    • View All Conferences
    • View All Webinars
    • 2022 Innovation Investing Conference
    • 2022 Defined Contribution East Conference
    • 2022 ESG Investing Conference
    • 2022 DC Investment Lineup Conference
    • 2022 Alternatives Investing Conference
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. INVESTING
May 01, 2019 01:00 AM

Asset owners see promises, challenges in infrastructure, opportunity zone investments

Arleen Jacobius
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print
    Bartomeu Amengual
    Hiromichi Mizuno

    Japan's $1.6 trillion Government Pension Investment Fund is considering investing in infrastructure in developing countries, said Hiromichi Mizuno, GPIF executive managing director and CIO, at the Milken Institute Global Conference on Tuesday.

    Mr. Mizuno said GPIF executives are trying to expand the boundaries to develop infrastructure in emerging markets, Mr. Mizuno said, speaking on an infrastructure panel. Big asset owners like GPIF struggle to invest in infrastructure in developing countries because it will be riskier, he said.

    One reason Japan's GPIF has not yet invested in emerging markets infrastructure is the difficulty finding public market comparisons such as municipal bonds, for example, he said. The public market comparisons would help GPIF officials determine what returns they would be looking for, he said.

    "In reality, we don't have a comparable," Mr. Mizuno said.

    Mr. Mizuno said he expects to raise the discussion on investing in high quality infrastructure, which should also have an ESG focus to be sustainable.

    It should be on the top of Japan Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare Katsunobu Kato's agenda, Mr. Mizuno said.

    Speaking on the same panel, Angela Rodell, CEO of the $61.9 billion Alaska Permanent Fund Corp., Juneau, said one way to encourage development of sustainable infrastructure in the U.S. could be through an opportunity zone program for infrastructure.

    "It would be a way to defer capital gains and put infrastructure" in as large a state as Alaska," Ms. Rodell said.

    In a separate panel Monday, Yibing Wu, joint head of the enterprise development and head of China for Temasek Holdings said that Temasek executives are now more interested in building portfolios rather than taking minority stakes in companies.

    Temasek, a Singapore state-owned investment company, has S$308 billion ($226.3 billion) in assets under management.

    In response to a question from moderator Timothy Dattels, co-managing partner of TPG Capital Asia and chairman of the Milken Institute's Asia Center, Mr. Wu said that the biggest investment opportunity in China is in "connecting worlds" such as health care and technology.

    Indeed, health care is an area where Temasek executives see the largest application of artificial intelligence and many advancements in this area are occurring in China, he said.

    Overall, the speakers on the panel pointed to China's movement from a manufacturing economy to a service economy as its population grows older.

    "There is a dramatic change in the mix of the economy (in China) ... now consumption is the main driver of economic growth," said Jin Qiu, CIO, wealth service center of investment bank China International Capital Corp. Four or five years ago, investment growth was the main driver of the economy in China.

    In a separate panel on opportunity zones Monday, Brent McIntosh, general counsel of the U.S. Treasury Department, said opportunity zones could grow to a $100 billion program.

    "People in this room don't understand how gigantic this is," said another panelist, Manny Friedman, CEO and co-CIO of alternative investment firm EJF Capital. He said that the opportunity zone program is the biggest program he has seen in his lifetime.

    "This is transformational. It will transform your life. ... it will transform America," Mr. Friedman said. "There will be losers. ... This is not about real estate. This is about massive job creation."

    (EJF Capital is in the process of raising a fund to invest in opportunity zones, sources said.)

    Companies will start moving into opportunity zones to take advantage of the capital gains tax treatment provided by the opportunity zones. Venture capital will move out of Silicon Valley to opportunity zones, he predicted.

    Richard Ressler, co-founder and principal of real estate manager CIM Group, said some 15% of the transactions in his firm's pipeline just so happen to be in opportunity zones.

    There is a downside. Some marginal transactions that have been floundering for years may be pushed "over the finish line," but it might also speed up good investments.

    Doing good for society while making money requires good investments be made, Mr. Ressler said.

    Related Articles
    Japan's GPIF hires StepStone to manage infrastructure fund-of-funds strategy
    Japan's GPIF appoints third global infrastructure fund-of-funds manager
    Managers eager to make leap to opportunity zone investing
    Opportunity zone rules aim to draw capital to distressed areas
    Recommended for You
    china_stock_market-main_i.jpg
    China opens exchange bond markets to overseas investors
    holmgren_david_2013_wide-main_i.jpg
    Hartford HealthCare CIO defies market, posts Q1 gain with '100% active' portfolio
    Stocks_Down_i.jpg
    Stocks can recover on $250 billion rebalance flow, J.P. Morgan says
    OCIO, Anchor in Rough Seas
    Sponsored Content: OCIO, Anchor in Rough Seas

    Reader Poll

    May 23, 2022
    SEE MORE POLLS >
    Sponsored
    White Papers
    Crossroads: Politics, Inflation, & Bonds
    Credit Indices: Closing the Fixed Income Evolutionary Gap
    Forever in Style: Benchmarking with the Morningstar® Broad Style Indexes℠
    Q2 2022 Credit Outlook: Carry On
    Leverage does not equal risk
    Is there a mid-cap gap in your DC plan?
    View More
    Sponsored Content
    Partner Content
    The Industrialization of ESG Investment
    For institutional investors, ETFs can make meeting liquidity needs easier
    Gold: the most effective commodity investment
    2021 Investment Outlook | Investing Beyond the Pandemic: A Reset for Portfolios
    Ten ways retirement plan professionals add value to plan sponsors
    Gold: an efficient hedge
    View More
    E-MAIL NEWSLETTERS

    Sign up and get the best of News delivered straight to your email inbox, free of charge. Choose your news – we will deliver.

    Subscribe Today
    May 23, 2022 page one

    Get access to the news, research and analysis of events affecting the retirement and institutional money management businesses from a worldwide network of reporters and editors.

    Subscribe
    Connect With Us
    • RSS
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn

    Our Mission

    To consistently deliver news, research and analysis to the executives who manage the flow of funds in the institutional investment market.

    About Us

    Main Office
    685 Third Avenue
    Tenth Floor
    New York, NY 10017-4036

    Chicago Office
    130 E. Randolph St.
    Suite 3200
    Chicago, IL 60601

    Contact Us

    Careers at Crain

    About Pensions & Investments

     

    Advertising
    • Media Kit
    • P&I Content Solutions
    • P&I Careers | Post a Job
    • Reprints & Permissions
    Resources
    • Subscribe
    • Newsletters
    • FAQ
    • P&I Research Center
    • Site map
    • Staff Directory
    Legal
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Request
    Pensions & Investments
    Copyright © 1996-2022. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • Topics
      • Alternatives
      • Consultants
      • Coronavirus
      • Courts
      • Defined Contribution
      • ESG
      • ETFs
      • Hedge Funds
      • Industry Voices
      • Investing
      • Money Management
      • Opinion
      • Partner Content
      • Pension Funds
      • Private Equity
      • Real Estate
      • Russia-Ukraine War
      • SECURE Act 2.0
      • Special Reports
      • White Papers
    • Rankings & Awards
      • 1,000 Largest Retirement Plans
      • Top-Performing Managers
      • Largest Money Managers
      • DC Money Managers
      • DC Record Keepers
      • Largest Hedge Fund Managers
      • World's Largest Retirement Funds
      • Best Places to Work in Money Management
      • Excellence & Innovation Awards
      • Eddy Awards
    • ETFs
      • Latest ETF News
      • Fund Screener
      • Education Center
      • Equities
      • Fixed Income
      • Commodities
      • Actively Managed
      • Alternatives
      • ESG Rated
    • ESG
      • Latest ESG News
      • The Institutional Investor’s Guide to ESG Investing
      • Climate Change: The Inescapable Opportunity
      • Impact Investing
      • 2022 ESG Investing Conference
      • ESG Rated ETFs
    • Defined Contribution
      • Latest DC News
      • DC Money Manager Rankings
      • DC Record Keeper Rankings
      • Innovations in DC
      • Trends in DC: Focus on Retirement Income
      • 2022 Defined Contribution East Conference
      • 2022 DC Investment Lineup Conference
    • Searches & Hires
      • Latest Searches & Hires News
      • Searches & Hires Database
      • RFPs
    • Performance Data
      • P&I Research Center
      • Earnings Tracker
      • Endowment Returns Tracker
      • Corporate Pension Contribution Tracker
      • Pension Fund Returns Tracker
      • Pension Risk Transfer Database
      • Future of Investments Research Series
      • Charts & Infographics
      • Polls
    • Careers
    • Events
      • View All Conferences
      • View All Webinars
      • 2022 Innovation Investing Conference
      • 2022 Defined Contribution East Conference
      • 2022 ESG Investing Conference
      • 2022 DC Investment Lineup Conference
      • 2022 Alternatives Investing Conference