Korea Post Insurance seeks multi-asset managers

Korea Post Insurance, the insurance unit of the $98 billion Korea Post Group, issued a request for proposal on Friday seeking four investment managers for a global tactical asset allocation strategy (GTAA).

The investor plans to hire up to two absolute return-type fund managers and two benchmark-type managers. Global macro hedge funds are excluded from the mandate.

Korea Post Insurance is looking for both domestic and overseas fund managers with over $200 billion in assets under management, $20 billion in an active GTAA strategy and more than seven years of investment history.

Its prospective commitment size has not been made public. Deadline for applications is 17 August.

The mandate aims to achieve excess returns by allocating assets actively, the statement said. Its targeted multi-asset investment scope includes alternative assets and liquid assets along with traditional assets such as equity and fixed income.

Korea Investment Management, a Seoul-based investment management firm and Korea Post Insurance’s GTAA advisory manager, will set up a separate, onshore fund of funds vehicle for the strategy. The firm will be responsible for managing the vehicle, portfolio risk monitoring and currency hedging.

Korea Post Insurance committed $100 million apiece to Hamilton Lane and HarbourVest Partners in November 2017, as previously reported by sister publication Private Debt Investor.

The Korea Post Group, which comprises Korea Post Insurance and Korea Postal Savings, has a 6.6 percent allocation to alternatives, of which 1.3 percent is in private equity, 1.5 percent in infrastructure and 2.2 percent in real estate, according to PEI data.

Korea Post Group has backed private equity funds managed by Goldman Sachs Principal Investment Area, Partners Group and Guggenheim Investments, PEI data show.