NPS adds six global alternative investment managers in Q2

The National Pension Service has added three real estate investment firms, two infrastructure managers and one private equity and debt investment house to its group of 156 global alternative investment managers in the second quarter of this year.

Allianz SE, Angelo Gordon and Starlight Investments were included in the pool of the NPS’s 52 overseas real estate investment firms, the pension fund said on Sept. 2.

In June, NPS announced a $2.3 billion co-investment fund launch with Allianz to target landmark office buildings and logistics and residential facilities in big cities in Asia.

Angelo, Gordon & Co. raised $1.5 billion in its first distressed debt fund earlier this year. NPS is believed to have committed to the fund. Canada’s Starlight focuses on multifamily and commercial real estate investment.

For infrastructure portfolio, Antin Infrastructure Partners and Keppel Infrastructure Holdings joined the line-up of 36 infrastructure managers.

In July, Antin announced the final close of its new infrastructure fund at $7.6 billion to invest in Europe and North America.

Singapore-based Keppel raised $570 million in commitments for its Asia infrastructure fund in April, including $100 million from Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. The fund had participated in the bidding for South Korea’s waste management firm EMC Holdings, for which South Korea's SK Engineering & Construction won the auction, worth slightly over 1 trillion won.

For private equity/debt and venture capital investment, SSP, formerly known as TPG Sixth Street Partners, became its 61st management house. It was separated from TPG early this year. TPG remained in the group of private equity/debt managers.

The number of hedge fund managers was unchanged at seven.

H1 RETURN, RECENT COMMITMENT

With $634 billion in assets under management, NPS posted a 0.5% return on investments for the first half of this year, led by fixed income and alternative assets.

Recently, the world’s third-largest pension scheme committed between $100 millon and $200 million to an energy and infrastructure fund set up by UK-based Actis LLP to invest in Africa, India and Latin America. The energy fund also encompasses environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria.

Actis has been in the pool of NPS’s infrastructure managers as of the end of June.

Global alternative portfolio reached 66.2 trillion won at the end of June. It represents 8.8% of its total investments and 24.6% of overseas investments. It plans to increase the share of overseas investments to at least 50% by 2024 from 35% in 2019.

Meanwhile, NPS plans to carry out about a fivefold increase in overseas staffing by 2024 to reduce external management fees by nearly 700 billion won, in line with continuing asset growth.

Write to Jung-hwan Hwang at jung@hankyung.com