NPS hires Millennium, Starboard, Systematica for hedge fund investing

National Pension Service (NPS) of South Korea said on Feb. 28 it selected Millennium Management LLC, Starboard Value LP and Systematica Investments Ltd. during the fourth quarter of 2021 as hedge fund managers. Including the three firms, NPS has hired 12 asset managers for overseas hedge fund investment on its behalf.

Millennium Management manages $53.3 billion in assets, using investment strategies including relative value fundamental equity, equity arbitrage, fixed income and quantitative strategies. Headquartered in New York, the firm was co-founded by American billionaire Israel Englander in 1989.

Starboard Value manages around $6.3 billion in assets as of last November, according to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The New York-based activist investor uses a fundamental approach to investing in publicly traded US companies. It seeks to invest in deeply undervalued companies and engage with management teams and boards of directors to identify opportunities. In this manner, Starboard's principals have managed investments since 2002.

Systematica Investments uses its global systematic trend-following strategy for hedge fund investment. The firm employs the strategy that trades in liquid futures and over-the-counter markets covering equities, fixed income, foreign exchange, energy, metals and agricultural commodities. The Jersey-headquartered firm’s AUM is not disclosed.

NPS, the world’s third-largest pension fund, posted 10.86% of its annualized return in 2021. The alternative investment return reached 23.97%. The pension fund’s AUM increased to 948.7 trillion won ($786.3 billion), up 115 trillion won from 2020.  

The pension fund's overseas absolute return investment reached 4.79 trillion won ($4 billion) as of January 2022, 4.67% of its alternative assets. The pension fund said it will boost the asset class exposure to 5.99 trillion won this year, according to The Korea Economic Daily's Asset Owners Report. 

Write to Jae-fu Kim at hu@hankyung.com
Jihyun Kim edited this article.