ABL Life sets sights on Australian real estate
The Korean insurer plans to “reshuffle” its property allocations in terms of geography and has particular preferences over its external manager partners.
South Korean insurer ABL Life is keen to ramp up its real estate investments and has set its sights on Australia as its preferred investment destination, in part because of the country’s favourable regulatory policies.
“We will be focusing on real estate, and we aren’t hesitant to expand real estate investments at this stage. Most Korean investors focus on, for example, the US, UK, Germany and other western European countries. But we re different. We ll be focusing on Australia,” Eoh Jiroo, ABL’s head of infrastructure and real asset investments, told
Market Views: How should instos approach investment insourcing?
The growing appetite among asset owners to bring portfolio management in-house is understandable, but the talent pool is already tight in Asia – and getting tighter.
The number of asset owners looking to insource investment management and reduce their use of external fund houses by building in-house teams is rising in Asia, as it is globally.
Australian superannuation funds, such as AustralianSuper, have been moving aggressively in this direction in recent years, and the trend has become more prominent generally in the persistently low-yield environment.
For pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, insurance firms and other institutions, improving internal investment capabilities holds the prospect of major benefits: reducing costs, increasing control over assets and therefore risk, and developing a stronger pipeline of investment opportunities through partners.
The growing appetite among asset owners to bring portfolio management in-house is understandable, but the talent pool is already tight in Asia – and getting tighter.
CDPQ looks to form more investment partnerships
For the Canadian pension fund, Covid-19 has underlined the value of tie-ups with local and global institutions, and of its long-standing focus on renewable energy.
Canada’s CDPQ is a big fan of partnerships with like-minded investors. The public pension fund is not alone in that, but it has been a particularly keen facilitator of sharing knowledge and networks.
And the coronavirus pandemic has reinforced CDPQ’s faith in its collaborative approach, with more such tie-ups looking likely, as it continues to build its allocation to Asia and in areas such as renewable energy.
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An Allianz fund is said to be in talks for a stake in Singapore’s OUE Bayfront
The COVID-19 pandemic drove down investment in commercial real estate across Asia Pacific by 36 percent in the first nine months of 2020, but one of the biggest purchasers of property assets in the region still managed to boost its APAC holdings by 16 percent during the period.
With the public health crisis disrupting travel and site visits, Allianz Real Estate had built its AUM in the region to EUR 6.4 billion ($7.9 billion) as of 30 September, and its top manager for the region says that figure may have reached as high as EUR 7 billion by year-end.