Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) is asking law firms to bid on a mandate to provide legal advisory services for its alternative investments.
The pension fund will chose one firm for a three-year term, GPIF says in a request for proposal on December 21.
Applicants must have at least ten years of experience providing investment legal services in Japan or abroad.
Applications are open until January 28. GPIF will hold three briefing sessions on the mandate on January 5. The winning bidder’s appointment will begin on April 1.
GPIF began to hire external legal service advisers for its alternative assets in 2015, a year after it began investing in non-mainstream assets.
The legal advisers are primarily responsible for establishing specialised units, employing experts and examining investment strategies for GPIF’s infrastructure, private equity and real estate mandates.
GPIF, the world’s largest pension fund, had 186.16 trillion yen (US$1.62 trillion) of total assets under management as of March 2021, including 1.34 trillion yen allocated to alternatives.