Choi Hee-nam, KIC President, "Pursuing Establishment of US San Francisco Office... A Step to Expand Alternative Investments"

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Ji-hwan] Choi Hee-nam, President of Korea Investment Corporation (KIC), announced on the 6th that the corporation plans to establish an office in San Francisco, USA, in the third quarter of this year as a forward base to expand alternative investments such as venture and technology investments in the North American West Coast region.

At a press conference held at a restaurant in Jung-gu, Seoul, President Choi said, "We will strengthen cooperation with California's pension funds, private equity firms, and asset management companies to reduce information asymmetry caused by information gaps."

He emphasized, "Through direct venture investments so far, we have realized the importance of networks," adding, "We will join the local investment 'inner circle' with domestic investment institutions to discover new investment opportunities."

President Choi also stated that to grow alongside the domestic financial industry this year, KIC will entrust domestic asset managers with equity and bond management. Considering their management experience, domestic asset managers will be selected, and the scope and scale of delegation will be expanded.

Additionally, an Overseas Investment Council composed of 24 institutions will be convened more than four times a year to share financial market information among members and explore opportunities for joint investments. An international financial council will be formed for Korean financial institutions stationed in New York, London, Singapore, and other locations to share global financial market trends and promising investment opportunities.

Regarding Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investments, KIC plans to establish an 'ESG Alert Process' to share investment information internally when global companies experience negative changes in ESG ratings. Furthermore, it announced plans to develop model portfolios to strengthen ESG-based investment management.

Moreover, KIC intends to regularize an 'ESG Day' to share global trends and best practices in responsible investment with domestic public investment institutions. President Choi also emphasized plans to build a high-performance quantitative analysis system capable of processing large volumes of data and algorithms within the first half of this year.

As of the end of last year, KIC manages assets worth $157.3 billion. Among these, traditional assets amount to $132.8 billion, and alternative assets total $24.5 billion. Since its establishment in 2005, cumulative investment returns have reached $49.2 billion (approximately 57 trillion KRW). Last year's investment return rate was 15.39%, and the annualized return rate over the past five years was 5.55%.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.