이 기사는 2020년 01월 31일 08시00분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

South Korea's Construction Workers Mutual Aid Association (CWMA) has picked private equity firms to commit 50 billion won ($42 million).

The CWMA has picked Stonebridge Capital and a consortium of Daishin Private Equity and SKS Private Equity to mandate them as external managers for private equity strategies, sources close to the matter said Tuesday. They are set to receive commitments worth a total of 50 billion won from the CWMA.

Daishin Private Equity and SKS Private Equity have been jointly running a private equity fund for the last three years or so. Last year, the consortium was selected by the Scientists and Engineers Mutual Aid Association (SEMA) as external private equity managers. They also teamed up to secure anchor capital worth 60 billion won ($50 million) from K-Growth, the country’s fund of funds operator, to form a fund targeting domestic growth companies.

Stonebridge Capital, which also received commitment worth 100 billion won ($84 million) from K-Growth last year, has been active in fundraising over the past year, too.

The CWMA, with about 3.9 trillion won ($3.3 billion) under management, has selected external managers for private equity and venture capital strategies on an annual basis since 2017. The amount of commitments in 2019 was similar to usual. Included in the list of the CWMA’s external private equity managers in 2017 and 2018 were SG Private Equity, Dominus Investment, Unison Capital and Q Capital Partners.

Meanwhile, the Public Officials Benefit Association (POBA) also recently announced the list of three private equity firms that will receive commitments worth a total of 120 billion won ($101 million). MBK Partners, SG Private Equity and H&Q Korea were included in the list.

Among other anchor investors, the Military Mutual Aid Association (MMAA) is currently proceeding with the selection process to hire external alternative managers, with the results likely to be announced at the end of February. K-Growth is also expected to announce a plan to pick investment firms to deploy capital from its Korea Development Bank-backed fund of funds vehicle later next month.

“Expectations of an increased investment in alternatives by domestic limited partners seemingly continue to be high in the [private equity] industry,” said an industry insider.

(By reporter Choi lk-hwan)