PDI Japan Korea Week to unveil KIC’s post-pandemic strategies

Private Debt Investor, a publication covering the global private debt investing scene, said Sunday it plans to hold a virtual investor event in November and feature post-pandemic strategies of Korea’s sole sovereign wealth fund, Korea Investment Corp.

During the event, named PDI Japan Korea Week, Choi Jin-suk, senior director of investment strategy group at KIC, will share the allocator’s key considerations when applying its environmental, social and governance factors in private debt investing, as well as ways to adapt to the ESG framework when selecting fund managers, PDI said.

KIC oversees the dollar-denominated assets of the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Bank of Korea, managing $183.1 billion in assets as of end-2020.

KIC has pledged to increase its alternatives exposure to 21 percent by 2024 and 25 percent by 2027, from 16.1 percent as of May this year.

Choi will be one of the speakers representing Korean allocators during the main event on Nov. 10, along with Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance and Fubon Hyundai Life Insurance. Representatives of VI Asset Management and IBK Securities will also discuss the latest regulation of the private debt industry.

PDI Japan Korea Week, in its third edition, is an event for investors to discover a diverse array of private debt strategies -- one of the fast-emerging means of alternative investment that ranges from senior debt to middle market direct lending, mezzanine and distressed -- against a backdrop of uncertainty brought about by COVID-19. Some of its Korean and Japanese sessions will be taking place simultaneously.

Video meetings between event participants can be scheduled during the week that runs Nov. 8-12, PDI added.

PDI is a publication owned by London-based financial intelligence company PEI, a media partner of The Korea Herald.

By Son Ji-hyoung (consnow@heraldcorp.com)