Nippon Life to Boost Private-Equity Holdings, Keep Hedge Funds
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Nippon Life Insurance Co., Japan’s biggest life insurer with about 50 trillion yen ($640 billion) of assets, plans to invest more in private-equity funds and maintain its hedge-fund allocations.
Less than 1 percent of the insurer’s assets are invested in private-equity and hedge funds, said Hiroo Sakuma, deputy general manager of the company’s credit and alternative investment department in Tokyo. Private equity accounts for twice the investments in hedge funds, he said, declining to give the size of each holding. Nippon Life invested about 100 billion yen in hedge funds as of March 2009, according to the company.