Homegrown success story Federation Asset Management has made its first offshore play, taking a stake in Tokyo-based corporate advisory firm Astris Advisory in a deal that will have the boutique investment house tap into Japan’s trillion-dollar pension honeypot, Street Talk can reveal.

Under the agreement, which was signed late last week, the $2 billion Federation, set up by former Macquarie Bank division head Cameron Brownjohn, will scale its operations on the island, leveraging Astris’ on-the-ground knowledge to draw in new investors and hunt down investment opportunities.