Weekly Digest: GIC ups Shanghai mall stake; NPS reduces foreign equities managers
TOP NEWS OF THE WEEK
China Vanke has sold almost its entire stake in a Shanghai mall, Shanghai Nanxiang Incity MEGA, to a subsidiary of long-term business partner GIC as the cash-strapped developer continues to offload assets to ease debt pressure.
Shenzhen SCPG Commercial Property Development and Management, which is wholly owned by a Vanke-linked company, in June sold a 48% stake in Shanghai Xingxinman Enterprise Management to Reco Yiyuan Private, a GIC subsidiary, according to business data provider Qichacha.
The six-story mall features a theatre, a 10-house cinema, an ice rink and a 400m roof running track.
Source: Caixin Global
Korea's National Pension Service (NPS) said on July 2 that it has decided to reduce its commitment to global asset managers by up to 10% of its entire foreign equities portfolio and increase direct control.
NPS, investing W367 trillion ($264.2 billion) in overseas stocks as of the end of March, commits some 56% of its foreign stocks to global asset managers, while the range of commitment is 55-75%. The pension scheme will lower the range to 45-65%.
NPS has overseas equities mandates with 41 global investment firms.
Source: NPS
OTHER INVESTMENT NEWS
AUSTRALIA
Australian pension funds are reducing their investments in hedge funds as regulatory scrutiny grows on fees and performance.
The average allocation to hedge funds was just 0.6% of growth investment options across Australia’s A$3.9 trillion ($2.6 trillion) pension pot in March, compared with 2.5% in mid-2020, according to the most recent data compiled by Chant West, a research firm.
AMP’s exposure has sunk to around half the prior year due to high fees, while Australian Retirement Trust, the nation’s second-biggest pension, says it doesn’t use them at all anymore.
Source: Bloomberg
AustralianSuper is shifting money into equities on the expectation that artificial intelligence will fuel further gains in tech stocks.
The A$335 billion ($226 billion) fund has started the new financial year 3% overweight in stocks. It has moved money from its fixed income and cash portfolios to expand its global and domestic equities allocation to about 57.5% of its portfolio, a position it expects to maintain or “possibly” increase, chief investment officer Mark Delaney said.
Source: Business Times
HONG KONG
The Risk-based Capital (RBC) regime for the Hong Kong insurance industry came into operation on July 1, marking a significant milestone for the insurance industry in Hong Kong.
Introduced by the Hong Kong Insurance Authority (IA), the Hong Kong RBC regime aims at strengthening Hong Kong policyholders' protection by ensuring the regulatory capital requirements of insurers reflect their actual risk exposures while incentivising improved risk management.
An IA spokesperson said, “The introduction of the RBC regime will strengthen the financial soundness of insurers in Hong Kong by taking a modular approach for an assessment more sensitive to each insurer’s risk profile while providing closer alignment with international standards.”
Source: Insurance Authority
JAPAN
Japan's Government Investment Pension Fund (GPIF) reported on Friday an investment gain of ¥21.4 trillion ($133.3 billion) in January-March as equities rallied strongly in Japan and globally.
GPIF gained 9.52% for the quarter, raising its total assets to ¥246 trillion ($1.53 trillion).
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The fund's Japanese equities portfolio gained 18.2% in the January-March quarter while its foreign equities portfolio grew 15.8%. The fund's foreign fixed income portfolio grew 5.4% while its Japanese fixed income portfolio fell 0.6%.
Source: GPIF
Japanese financial groups including Tokio Marine, Sompo and two MS&AD units will sell Honda Motor shares worth ¥535 billion ($3.3 billion) to unwind cross-shareholdings, a regulatory filing showed on July 4.
The four non-life insurers, which include MS&AD Insurance subsidiaries Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance and Aioi Nissay Dowa, have previously said they would cut their entire cross-shareholdings to zero in a few years, in response to a price-fixing scandal last year.
Honda was one of the top five cross-shareholding companies for the insurers except for Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance, according to securities filings in March.
Source: Reuters
KOREA
Teachers’ Pension has appointed three managers for a $150 million global bond fixed income mandate. The three managers named are RBC Bluebay, Goldman Sachs, and Amundi.
The mandate is benchmarked against the Bloomberg Global Aggregate Index.
Source: Teachers’ Pension
The National Pension Service (NPS) is seeing limited tenant demand for a Seoul-based new prime office building, a part of multiple building complex Magok One Grove in western Seoul.
NPS signed a deal for the office in 2021 as a preemptive strategy to secure the asset. The 2.3 trillion won investment has been the pension fund’s largest capital injection in a single domestic property.
The office will finish construction by next month, with occupancy beginning in February 2025. The complex is made up of office space, a hotel and a shopping arcade with a combined 463,543 square meters of floor area.
Source: Korea Economic Daily
Kyobo Life Insurance and Japan’s SBI Group have entered into a strategic business partnership agreement to strengthen the cooperation in digital finance and technology.
Since 2022, Kyobo Life Insurance and SBI Group have been collaborating in the venture capital and fintech sectors, including a venture capital fund in Southeast Asia.
This partnership between both companies will facilitate the exchange of technological capabilities and know-how across Kyobo Life Insurance Group and SBI Group, as well as unlock new business opportunities in the digital space for Kyobo Life Insurance Group and SBI Group.
Source: Kyobo Life
The above briefs were curated from company news releases and third-party sources