이 기사는 2021년 03월 22일 08시01분 thebell에 표출된 기사입니다

The National Pension Service of South Korea (NPS) has created rules about sending its employees to work at foreign institutions that are in partnership with the pension fund, a step to bolster human resources exchange with its global partners.

Draft rules said the purpose of the new rules is to strengthen a strategic relationship with foreign investment institutions for access to quality investment opportunities abroad and to build a global network of talent.

Employees sent abroad by the NPS will be mainly responsible for liaising with partner institutions and reporting the progress of overseas investments. The period of working at these positions is for one year and can be extended by up to two years.

NPS announced its five-year plan spanning from 2020 to 2024 in July last year to expand investments abroad in an effort to improve efficiency of asset management and enhance returns.

As part of efforts to strengthen partnership with its global peers and foreign asset managers, the pension fund formed a $1.5 billion equity joint venture with real estate investment group Hines in December last year. The venture targets a build-to-core strategy to create a portfolio of prime assets in mixed-use, residential, office and logistics sectors around the world. This partnership has also allowed the pension fund to make use of Hines’ relationship networks formed across 225 cities worldwide.

NPS also announced a strategic partnership with Dutch pension fund APG in October last year to increase joint investments in real assets globally. They teamed up to buy a majority stake in Portuguese toll road operator Brisa and also jointly invested in the Scape Core Fund managed by Australia’s largest student housing operator, Scape Australia.

In June last year, the pension fund entered into a strategic partnership with Allianz Group to jointly establish a $2.3 billion fund to build a portfolio of high-quality real estate in the Asia-Pacific region. Three months later, it also struck a partnership with Singaporean investment firm Keppel Capital for infrastructure investments in Asia.

The pension fund had 833.7 trillion won ($736.8 billion) in assets under management at the end of 2020, with overseas investments accounting for 303.9 trillion won, or 36.5%, of the total assets. It plans to increase its allocation to foreign assets to 50% by 2024. (Reporting by Hee-yeon Han)