Dimensional Fund Advisors has launched in Japan, a rare move for a large foreign asset manager in recent years, and plans to pick up large public funds and institutional investors as clients after clinching a mandate with a big fund last year.
Its entry comes as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's reflationary fiscal and monetary policies have triggered the yen's fall to 3-1/2 year lows and a 45 percent surge in the Nikkei stock average since November. Still, that is not the reason why the Texan firm, which holds $262 billion in assets under management, has opened a Tokyo office.
"It's always good to enter a market at a trough," John Alkire, the chief executive of Dimensional Japan, told Reuters in an interview. Ten to 15 years ago, when asset management companies were aggressively entering Japan, Alkire said it was difficult to hire qualified people or find cheap office space.
"When you start a business de novo, or Greenfield. I think that it's a better market when stock markets are low, like the Nikkei was until six months ago, when there is a need by clients for investment solutions."