A Bermudian-based asset manager has opened a representative office in Tokyo, adding to signs of growing financial services ties between the island and Japan.

Alpha Growth Management (Bermuda) Ltd, formerly Alpha Longevity Management Ltd, said it had established the Tokyo office to support relationships with Japanese institutional investors and distribution partners.

The Bermuda Monetary Authority-licensed investment manager, a wholly owned subsidiary of London-listed Alpha Growth plc, also announced its rebrand yesterday. It said its structure, licensing and operations would not change.

Gobind Sahney, the director and chief executive, said: “The new name better reflects the full scope of the strategies we manage on behalf of our clients, from asset-based finance and litigation pre-settlements to systematic allocation strategies.

“Our team, our approach, and our commitment to clients remain exactly the same.”

The Tokyo office will be led by Hitoshi Sato, who has more than 40 years of experience in Japan’s financial sector. He will focus on investor relations and developing relationships with institutional investors and financial professionals, working with Andre Severino, Alpha chief investment officer.

Alpha said its Alpha Omni Alternative Global Fund, an Irish-domiciled sub-fund registered in Japan, is open to subscriptions from professional investors. The fund invests in asset-backed finance, with a focus on American litigation pre-settlement advances.

The move comes days after the Bermuda International Life and Annuity Conference pointed to Asia, particularly Japan, as a key growth market for the island’s long-term insurance sector.

Bermuda’s long-term insurers and reinsurers manage more than $1.5 trillion in assets on behalf of about 90 million policyholders worldwide, according to figures presented at the conference. Natasha Scotland Courcy, chairwoman of Biltir, said Bermuda’s regulatory framework, reinsurance expertise and access to long-term capital makes it ideally positioned to support insurers in Asia.

Japan accounts for 11 per cent of business ceded to Bermuda’s long-term insurance sector and 9 per cent of its policyholders, Biltir figures show. Most ceded business still comes from the United States, but Japanese activity has risen as insurers seek out capital and risk-management solutions amid an ageing population, low interest rates and new international capital rules.

The relationship has already produced a string of sizeable reinsurance transactions this year. Japan Post Insurance expanded a payout-annuity deal with Bermuda-based Talcott Re by ¥100 billion (about $625 million), after an earlier ¥550 billion transaction. It also entered a separate whole-life annuities reinsurance agreement with Aflac Re Bermuda. Prismic Life Reinsurance International later agreed to reinsure a yen-denominated block of whole-life and annuity policies from Dai-ichi Life Insurance.

The growing flow of business has also drawn regulatory attention. Japan’s Financial Services Agency has proposed stronger oversight of offshore life reinsurance, including asset management, collateral, concentration risk and stress testing.