이 기사는 2020년 04월 10일 08시00분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

Park Dae-yang, chief investment officer of South Korea's sovereign wealth fund Korea Investment Corporation (KIC), visited New York in the U.S. earlier this year in a move to strengthen networks and build relations with foreign asset managers.

Park traveled to New York City for about a week in early February, sources close to the corporation said Tuesday. It was his first overseas trip this year, of which the main purpose was to check on the status of the city’s property investment market.

In New York, Park met with managers running real estate funds in which KIC invested to review information on the funds’ performance. He discussed with them strategies to increase the value of assets and make successful exits in the future.

Park also had meetings with other several asset managers to consider new investments. He discussed with them the outlook for the property investment market in the U.S. and they shared with him information about new investment opportunities and strategies currently pursued by them.

Founded in 2005, KIC has $102.6 billion assets under management. The fund’s total net asset value as of the end of June 2019 was $144.5 billion, among which about 83 percent was invested in traditional assets. Meanwhile, alternative assets – such as hedge funds, private equity, real estate and infrastructure – accounted for about 16 percent. This was up from 14 percent at the end of December 2017, which is consistent with KIC’s long-term investment strategy.

Specifically, the net asset value of the fund’s alternative investments as of the end of June 2019 stood at $23.4 billion, of which the biggest portion or about 40 percent was invested in real estate and infrastructure, followed by private equity (36 percent) and hedge funds (21 percent).

During his visit to New York, Park also met with the U.S. asset managers and investment bankers to check on the status of the fund’s investment in traditional assets. He had meetings with them to discuss the market outlook and asset allocation strategies.

Park was named CIO of KIC in August last year. Prior to this job, he spent his career at Korean Federation of Community Credit Cooperatives (KFCC) and Allianz Life, before moving to Teachers’ Pension in 2017 where he served as CIO.

After taking office, Park made his first overseas trip in September last year to strengthen relations with foreign asset managers. He traveled to Paris and London for a week to meet with several European asset managers.

During his trip last year, he attended a venture capital conference hosted by French state investment arm BPI, where he got an update on recent trends in venture capital investment and had meetings with relevant parties. He also visited the fund’s London office to meet with staff there. KIC operates overseas offices in New York, London and Singapore.

(By reporter Han Hee-yeon)