WEST PALM BEACH, FL (www.hedgeco.net) – Growing number of Japanese institutions are showing greater willingness and interest in hedge funds, according to Nikko Asset Management’s alternativeinvestment division. Such renewed interest was necessitated by the desire to achieve investment returns in a period marked by declining returns.
Hiroki Tsujimura, president of Nikko Alternative Asset Management, a unit of Japan’s Nikko Asset Management, said, “It is natural for clients to invest in hedge funds for their potential benefits of diversification, the demand for hedge funds to substitute or augment their traditional assets is growing.� Tsujimura also explained that pension funds have to recover huge liability of their assets.
Nikko Asset Management is the asset management arm of Japan’s third biggest brokerage, Nikko Cordial Corp. In 2004, according to news reports, the company increased its hedge fund investments to over $3 billion, a few years back such investments stood at about $600 million. Japanese institutional investors including pension funds are increasing their appetites for hedge fund and other alternative investments.
Japanese Pension funds control over $3.2 trillion in assets in 2003, according to data from the Japan Securities Investment Advisors Association. Japanese private pensions are increasing investment in hedge funds by 30-35 percent according to Daiwa Securities. The total Japanese hedge fund investments totaled about $6 billion at the end of 2004.
Paul Oranika
Editor-in-Chief
HedgeCo.Net
Email: Editor@hedgeco.net
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