BlackRock dropped from NPS’ property investment manager pool

BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has been excluded from the National Pension Service’s 49-strong group of global real estate investment managers, whereas StepStone Real Estate and Stockbridge joined the pool as new managers, NPS data shows.

“BlackRock was naturally dropped from the list after its fund in which the NPS had invested was liquidated at maturity. There is no particular reason,” an NPS source told the Korean investors.

The 730 trillion-won ($594 billion) pension scheme entrusted cross-border real estate investments to 49 firms as of the end of 2019, compared with 48 a year before.

Among the fund houses were Blackstone, Carlyle and TPG, as well as specialist real estate investment firms such as CBRE Global Investors, LaSalle Investment Management, Germany’s Patrizia and Hong Kong-based Pacific Alliance Group and Gaw Capital.

For infrastructure portfolios, there was no change to the 34-strong manager pool for the world's No. 3 pension fund, in which BlackRock was counted.

Other infrastructure investment managers included Blackstone, Brookfield and Carlyle, as well as Europe-based Ardian and Australia’s Macquarie.

NPS’ chief investment officer Hyo-joon Ahn visited major investment managers in the US in mid-February and discussed strategic cooperation and co-investments, just before the coronavirus spread around the world.

NPS aims to allocate 15% of its investment assets to alternatives by 2024, or 150 trillion won in value, from the current 13%.

Write to Hyun-il Lee at hiuneal@hankyung.com