Polar Asset joins NPS' hedge fund managers in Q3

National Pension Service (NPS) of South Korea selected Toronto-based Polar Asset Management Partners Inc. as a new mandate of hedge fund managers in the third quarter of this year, the Korean pension fund announced on Nov. 29.

Including Polar, NPS partners with nine managers for its hedge fund investment. The other eight managers are BlackRock Inc., Crabel Capital Management LLC, Diameter Capital Partners LP, GCM Grosvenor Inc., Marshall Wace LLP, Pentwater Capital Management LP, Select Equity Group Inc. and Waterfall Asset Management LLC. 

Founded in 1991, the Canadian hedge fund firm manages $7.1 billion in assets. With an emphasis on Canada, the hedge fund firm employs multi-strategies such as convertible arbitrage, equity arbitrage, event-driven, fixed income, US equity long/short, structure credit and North American micro-cap.

The firm’s co-founder and Chief Investment Officer Paul Sabourin sets investment strategy and also acts as lead portfolio manager for the firm’s multi-strategy team.

Initiating its hedge fund investment in 2016, NPS picked BlackRock and GCM Grosvenor as general partners of fund of hedge fund investment and committed $500 million to each manager. 

In 2019, the world's third-largest pension fund further expanded its hedge fund management pool and made its first single-manager hedge fund investment with 1 trillion won through four global investment firms -- Marshall Wace, Crabel Capital, Pentwater and Waterfall. 

Marshall Wace manages quantitative, systematic and fundamental strategies, specializing in long/short equity. Founded by short-term commodity trader Toby Crabel, Crabel Capital specializes in systematic trading of managed futures and currencies. Pentwater employs event-driven strategies, while Waterfall focuses on structured credit, such as asset-backed securities and loans, and private equity investments. 

NPS manages 918.7 trillion won assets as of end-September. It aims to increase its alternative investment proportion from 10.9% as of the end-September to 16% by 2025.

Write to Chang-Jae Yoo at yoocool@hankyung.com
Jihyun Kim edited this article.