이 기사는 2020년 03월 09일 08시00분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

South Korea’s National Pension Service (NPS) has hired two more external alternative managers for its private equity investments in overseas markets in the last quarter of 2019 amid its plan to increase its alternatives bets.

HPS Investment Partners and KPS Capital Partners have been hired as NPS’ external managers for its private equity investments in overseas markets in the last quarter of 2019 according to sources familiar with the matter on March 4. With the latest inclusion, the NPS now has 58 external managers for its global private equity division.

As of the end of 2018, the NPS had a total of 52 external managers to make private equity investments in overseas markets. The pension fund added six more external managers over the course of 2019. It hired Gesntar Capital Partners in the first quarter, Altas, H.I.G. Capital and Strategic Partners in the second quarter, and two more in the last quarter of 2019.

U.S.-headquartered HPS Investment Partners was founded in 2007 and was originally formed as a division of Highbridge Capital Management within J.P. Morgan Asset Management and known as Highbridge Principal Strategies.

The firm has 61 billion dollars in assets under management as of January and operates 11 offices around the world. HPS Investment Partners was selected as an external manager by South Korea’s Public Officials Benefit Association (POBA) and received commitments worth 50 million dollars in October 2019.

Established in 1991, U.S.-based KPS Capital Partners has 11.5 billion dollars in total assets under management. The firm is known for the acquisition of the TaylorMade Golf Company – including the TaylorMade, Adams and Ashworth brands - from adidas AG for total consideration of 425 million dollars in 2017.

KPS Capital Partners also acquired Howden, a global provider of mission critical air and gas handling products and services, in October 2019 and took over Life Fitness, a commercial fitness equipment and game tables maker, in May 2019.

As of the end of 2019, the NPS’ assets in foreign alternatives amount to 59.5 trillion won, which account for 7.9 percent of the pension fund’s total assets under management. Among alternative asset classes, real estate accounts for almost 40 percent of the total investment in foreign alternatives, followed by private equity and infrastructure. The NPS plans to boost the share of overall investment in overseas assets, both traditional and alternative,

(By reporter Han Hee-yeon)