Client story: Ueda Yagi Securities

The context:

Based in Tokyo, Ueda Yagi Securities (UYS) is an asset management firm specializing in securities, non-discretionary investment advice, and discretionary investment management. It provides services for pension funds, university endowment funds, and family offices, as well as private placement investment services for financial institutions. With nearly 50 Japanese corporate pension clients and an AUM of $550mn, UYS has built a strong reputation for advancing investor interests in private markets through its highly selective, “hands-on” approach while providing top-quality financial products.

“You could describe what we do as “gatekeeping” services. By gatekeeping, I mean discretionary investment management services to Japanese corporate pension funds. We step in to conduct due diligence, fund searching, ongoing monitoring, and periodic reporting to support our clients,” explained Minori Honda, UYS’s Head of Asset Management.

The challenge:

As a small boutique shop, Ueda Yagi Securities has to be highly selective with the hundreds of managers approaching them. Therefore, rigorous due diligence is critical to ensure that the right managers are engaged. But information in the alternative investments space – particularly reliable, high-quality data – can be hard to find. Manually sourcing this information takes time that a small team like UYS doesn’t have – not without compromising their targets or the quality of their service. To maximize their operational efficiency and streamline their workflow, they need access to timely, high-quality datasets – that’s where Preqin comes in.

“We’re a small boutique shop so we need to use our time efficiently. We can’t have a meeting with every single hedge fund manager that approaches us, so we use Preqin to narrow our focus on those managers that align with our strategy and our clients’ investment goals,” explained Minori.

The result:

Effective peer comparison is crucial in selecting the right fund manager and Preqin data enables UYS to analyze performance easily. Whether for due diligence or periodic reporting, datasets that are reliable, curated, and prompt save time and maximize efficiency for Minori’s team.

Preqin also keeps UYS up to date on key private market developments. Thanks to our localization capabilities, the firm receives Preqin’s market reports in Japanese, enabling UYS to easily share them with its clients. Webinars are also provided in Japanese, allowing the firm’s marketing team to keep updated on the latest trends in private markets – something that proves very useful in client conversations.

Finally, with Preqin, UYS have access to outstanding customer service which helps the team in their day-to-day functions.

“Your real-time chat function is very helpful – we can ask any question that pops up and get a fast and timely response. The service we used before Preqin didn’t have this feature. Preqin now has an office in Tokyo which is great for us; being in the same time zone, talking the same language, it means we can get help instantly, so this is something we really appreciate."

Why Ueda Yagi Securities chose Preqin

• Ueda Yagi Securities has been a Preqin client since 2017, with Minori commenting that “the data quality and coverage get better year by year”. Having previously subscribed to a different service provider, UYS switched to Preqin for the quality of our data, the breadth of our coverage, our provision of past performance data, and our real-time customer support. Minori singled out Preqin’s mandates and RFP data as being especially valuable, as they enable UYS to quickly identify which investors are planning to invest in the next 12 months and initiate conversations with them.

• UYS is very appreciative of the way Preqin localizes its services for them. Through Preqin’s Tokyo office, the firm is able to access the key reports and webinars in Japanese, which Minori describes as being of immense value to the firm. This also extends to Preqin events, which are getting bigger and bigger every year. Minori described attending a Preqin conference in Tokyo last year as “a great success”, noting that it “demonstrated a shift in interest from public to private markets in the region”.

• Preqin’s fast, reliable data optimizes UYS’s workflow – allowing its small team to make the most of its resources and focus on providing the best service for its clients.

About Ueda Yagi Securities

Formally established in 2007 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Ueda Yagi Tanshi (one of three money market brokers in Japan), Ueda Yagi Securities is a leading and pioneering player in the world of discretionary investment management services when it comes to alternative assets. From offshore hedge funds to domestic privately placed investment trusts, UYS offers a broad range of investment products, having built a reputation for its strong, long-lasting relationships with portfolio managers and their investors. Its parent company, Ueda Yagi Tanshi, can trace its origins to 1918 with the founding of call transaction specialist Ueda Tanshi in Osaka.

In 2001, Ueda Tanshi merged with Yagi Tanshi to become Ueda Yagi Tanshi, and as its interest in alternative assets grew, it founded Ueda Yagi Securities 6 years later to provide fund sales for accredited financial institutions. Given the diverse, rapidly changing nature of the modern market landscape, UYS has adopted a flexible, fast, and sensitive approach to meet the needs of its clients. It defines its mission statement as “to serve as a ‘Key Stone’ (Kaname) that connects investors with a wide variety of financial products and [to] strive to advance investors’ interests and their investment goals”.