이 기사는 2019년 12월 24일 08시00분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

South Korea’s SK Group plans to speed up its investment in overseas markets, launching funds in partnership with major domestic institutions.

SK Group set up a $1 billion fund in partnership with the National Pension Service (NPS), industry sources said on December 18.

The new fund is one of the so-called Corporate Partnership Funds – of which a domestic company and an institution, with a focus on overseas investments, both contribute 50 percent of the committed capital. Before that, the South Korean conglomerate also launched a $1 billion fund together with the Korean Teachers' Credit Union (KTCU) in September.

SK South East Asia Investment Pte Ltd – SK Group’s Singaporean unit founded in 2018 for a foray into Southeast Asian market – will invest $500 million in the SK-NPS fund. The fund aims to invest in local companies with high growth potential and infrastructure assets that could generate synergy with the conglomerate’s existing business. The NPS, also committing $500 million to the fund, has appointed SKS Private Equity and Stonebridge Capital as its general partners.

On the other hand, SK Corporation – a holding company of the SK Group – committed capital to the SK-KTCU fund. The fund's focus is making overseas investments including cross-border mergers and acquisitions, with the aim of finding the conglomerate’s future growth engines. The SK-KTCU fund has recently chosen Brazos Midstream, a U.S. shale gas gathering and processing company, as its first investment. With IMM Investment serving as a general partner of the KTCU, the fund is expected to particularly focus on energy, biopharmaceutical and semiconductor sectors.

Corporate Partnership Funds’ success would depend on how closely the company and the institution collaborate with each other, as well as how passionate they are about overseas deals. Also important is the role of general partners, which need to work closely with the both parties.

Previously, the KTCU has participated in several deals where SK Group’s affiliates were a buyer. The union invested 300 billion won ($258 million) in the acquisition of Toshiba memory business by a consortium led by U.S. private equity firm Bain Capital, of which SK Hynix was also a member. It also invested about 260 billion won ($224 million) in SK Telecom’s acquisition of security service firm ADT Caps.

Meanwhile, IMM Investment has worked with SK Group when the conglomerate invested in Vingroup and Masan Group, the first and second largest companies in Vietnam. SKS Private Equity also reporteldy has a close relationship with SK Group.

(By reporter Kim Hye-ran)