The Australian investment advisory firm – which has $800 billion in funds under advice – announced it has partnered up with Nissay Asset Management (AM).
Wholly owned by Japanese life insurer Nippon Life Insurance Company and established in 1995, Nissay AM manages approximately $350 billion in assets within Japan’s private pension market.
The partnership will allow the Japanese asset manager to access Frontier’s investment insights and information to further support its pension clients.
Frontier, headquartered in Melbourne, first entered the Japanese market via the opening of its Tokyo office in 2022 after forming relationships throughout the local institutional investment industry. At the time, it also appointed Yuichi Alex Takayama as its head of Japan to lead its presence in the country.
The announcement solidifies Frontier’s foothold in the region and marks a “significant milestone” for the company, it said.
“This is a landmark achievement for our business and to break ground in the Japanese market with an organisation of Nissay AM’s calibre, is incredibly exciting,” said Frontier’s CEO, Andrew Polson.
“Our founders may not have envisaged taking the business into markets like Japan back at our inception, but the value contained in quality insights and advice, free from product conflicts, is more relevant than ever. And, that value can extend to asset owners in all parts of the world, not just here in Australia.”
Yuichi Tanaka, managing director at Nissay AM, said the partnership could potentially see the co-development of new services in the future.
“Our goal at Nissay AM is to be a ‘success partner’ with our clients and we think this partnership with Frontier will help us achieve that vision and may even lead to the co-development of new services,” he said.
Frontier said it has observed the growing demand for advice in the real assets sector from Japanese asset owners. This comes alongside rising Japanese investment into Australia, with Japanese investors deploying more than $5 billion in Australian commercial property over the past two years, according to MSCI data.
“The Japanese institutional investor market is large, but complicated, and it has been tough to find the right way to deliver what Frontier has accumulated in Australia to the Japanese institutional investors,” said Takayama.
“But working closely with Nissay AM over many months, we believe we have developed a unique approach together. We’re excited to begin this partnership, which will be a great support to our broader Japanese venture.”
Established in 1994, Frontier Advisors targets institutional investors across the superannuation, charity, public sector, insurance and higher education industries.
