National Pension Service of Korea (NPS)

Youngshin Park, a 20-year veteran of the country's LP community, explains what makes Korean LPs tick and outlines the best strategies for accessing this rich source of capital.

Institutional investors can no longer ignore the fact that exposure to high-quality assets is increasingly accessed via the secondaries market.

The country’s largest public pension will pursue both private equity and private credit continuation fund opportunities, investment policy committee member Sam Y Chung tells PEI.

The pension made at least 52 new PE commitments in 2022, bringing the total number of funds and projects in its portfolio to 456, per its latest annual report.

The $5.9bn institution has an 8.8% exposure to alternatives, most of which is held in infrastructure debt, CIO Byung-kyu Cheon tells PEI.

NPS backed 55 private equity funds and projects last year, bringing the total number of these vehicles in its portfolio to 404 as of December, per its latest annual disclosure.

The South Korean pension issues a request for proposal for local VC managers.

Fundraising in South Korea requires resources, attentiveness and patience, though the country should prove to be fertile ground for the foreseeable future, writes Albert Jun, partner at Monument Group.

Between them, the 10 largest investors on this year’s Global Investor 150 ranking have $1.1trn allocated to private equity, with an average allocation of 21%.