Hanwha Asset to raise $1 bn from insurance arms to launch global funds

South Korea’s Hanwha Asset Management Co. Ltd. will launch three global funds for infrastructure, real estate and private equity investments, with $1 billion commitments from two insurance units of its parent group.

Hanwha Life Insurance Co. Ltd. and Hanwha General Insurance Co. Ltd. will commit the pledged capital to the blind-pool funds in installments starting from this month through June 2019, they said in recent regulatory filings.

Hanwha Life will deploy $940 million to the three funds on capital calls, with Hanwha General to allocate $60 million to them. Both insurers will be only investors in the funds.

They said the commitment decisions, which won approval from their board of directors this week, are aimed at making strategic asset allocations and achieving higher investment returns for a long term.

The following are details of the three funds and planned allocations:

Yong Seok Pae, an ex-private equity team head under the National Pension Service’s global alternative investment division, will spearhead the management of the three blind-pool funds.

Since moving to Hanwha Asset last year, Pae has been heading its alternative investment division as a managing director.

Hanwha Asset is wholly owned by Hanwha Life.

Hanwha Life's Chief Investment Officer Hee-baek Kwon told the Korean Investors in an interview earlier this year that the insurer was expected to boost alternative investments by a net 1.2 trillion won ($1.1 billion) this year.

The fund launches for the Hanwha Group’s financial companies come after Samsung Group’s real estate investment firm launched a series of overseas investment firms with commitments from affiliated financial services companies.

Samsung SRA Asset Management Co. Ltd. of Samsung Life Insurance Co. Ltd. is seeking to raise around 500 billion won to finance its bid for a building in Paris used as the headquarters of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency.

By Ikhwan Kim