S.Korean sovereign wealth fund KIC to set up Mumbai office

Sovereign wealth fund Korea Investment Corporation (KIC) has kicked off procedures to open a Mumbai-based office later this year, The Korea Economic Daily found.

The South Korean fund has recently set up a task force team under its investment strategy division in a bid to establish an office in the financial hub of India. 

It will mark KIC’s fifth office overseas, following offices in New York, London, Singapore and San Francisco.

KIC will compete with global pension giants and state-run funds, which have expanded their presence in India, one of the fastest-growing countries in the world. 

Canada’s Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTTP) set up its Mumbai office last year. Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) have run their Mumbai branches since 2011 and 2015, respectively.

India will surpass China to become the most populated country in the world this year, according to United Nations data. 

The South Asian country’s real gross domestic product (GDP) growth is projected to average 6.3% annually between 2021 and 2030, enabling it to overtake Japan and Germany to become the world's third-largest economy in nominal US dollar terms, S&P Global said last November.

India is also expected to reap the benefits of US-China conflict. Washington is strengthening Quad, or Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, an informal strategic forum where India, Japan and Australia are the member states.

The US is also leading the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) for growth and sustainability for 14 countries including India. Washington and New Delhi are further intensifying ties in defense through an initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET).

Founded in 2005, KIC is managing funds from the finance ministry and the Bank of Korea (BOK) and is only investing overseas.

Amid the poor performance of equities and bonds, its assets under management plummeted from $205 billion — the world's 14th-largest for a sovereign wealth fund as of end-2021 — to $169.3 billion as of end-2022.

Write to Byeong-Hwa Ryu at hwahwa@hankyung.com

Jihyun Kim edited this article.