Japanese corporate pension funds, with about ¥60 trillion in assets, may triple their allocations to alternative assets as they seek to reduce risks and boost returns, according to Credit Suisse Group AG.
Typically, 2 to 5 percent of pension fund assets are in alternative investments including hedge funds, private equity and real estate, and this may grow to about 10 to 15 percent over the next two years, said Benjamin Happ, Hong Kong-based Asia-Pacific head of capital services in Credit Suisse's prime services division.
"What's interesting to us right now is how important the institutional investors in Japan are for hedge funds," Happ said in Tokyo, where the bank held a conference for Japanese institutions and global hedge-fund managers.