GPIF’s LinkedIn message is difficult to ignore
Resorting to social media demonstrates the world’s largest pension fund’s struggles to find someone to meet its real estate aspirations.
Expert analysis by Jonathan Brasse
It is a strange affair when the biggest pension fund in the world turns to social media to boost its chances of finding suitable leadership.
Last week, yoshitaka todoroki , managing director of the private market investment department and head of private equity and infrastructure – and acting head of real estate – at Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund, posted on LinkedIn that finding a permanent successor for the real estate gig was a “top priority” in the investor’s recruitment activity.
Whoever comes in to replace previous incumbent Hideto Yamada, who left in April to join Singaporean manager CapitaLand Investment, has a huge job to do. GPIF, which manages $1.358 trillion in assets, had a comparatively small $6.2 billion of private real estate on its books, or about 0.4 percent of total assets, as of the end of March. That places the investor 86th on PERE’s latest Global Investor 100 ranking, which will be published at the start of next month. Even doubling that amount sees the investor barely climb past 50th position...