NPS picks four candidates to run hedge funds-of-funds

Published : May 22, 2016 - 13:47 Updated : Jun 11, 2016 - 16:43

Korea’s National Pension Service, which manages the world’s third-largest public pension fund after Japan and Norway, said it has shortlisted four companies as candidate operators of hedge fund of funds (FoHF).

The four are BlackRock Alternative Advisors, Blackstone Alternative Asset Management, Grosvenor Capital Management and UBS Hedge Fund Solutions, the NPS said in a statement.

The NPS will narrow them down to two finalists by September and assign them $1 billion investment in FoHF, it said.

The nation’s largest institutional investor has been accelerating its move to seek higher profits in alternative investments since February this year when new chief investment officer Kang Myoun-wook took the helm.

Earlier on May 16, it decided to increase the fund’s allocation in global investments in its mid-to-long-term fund investment portfolio.

Under its plan for the period 2017-21, the investment proportion of global stocks will rise to around 25 percent of the fund in 2021 from 13.7 percent in 2015. The overseas bond portfolio will also increase to 5 percent from 4.3 percent during the cited period.

The fund managed by the NPS is expected to grow from 511.7 trillion won in 2015 to 609 trillion won in 2017.

By Kim Yoon-mi (yoonmi@heraldcorp.com)