South Korea’s NPS commits another $7 billion to infra

The pension fund saw its infra commitments reach almost 5% of its total investment portfolio by the end of 2021, including investments in 15 new funds globally.

National Pension Service of Korea upped its commitment to infrastructure by 8.95 trillion won ($6.78 billion; €6.67 billion) last year, bringing its total infrastructure commitment to almost 5 percent of its total portfolio, the institution has revealed.

According to its latest annual report, NPS – which had 948.7 trillion won AUM as of December 2021 – had 47.1128 trillion won in infra commitments by the end of last year. The latest figure represents roughly 4.97 percent of its total investment portfolio and is an increase from the 38.1641 trillion won in infra commitments NPS had as of December 2020

Of the new investments made by the institution during 2021, it committed to 15 new infrastructure funds, bringing the total number of infrastructure funds NPS has invested in as of December 2021 to 105.

Its largest infra fund exposures include Global Infrastructure Partners III (462.4 billion won), AMP Capital Infrastructure Debt Fund IV (430.7 billion won), Brookfield Infrastructure Fund III (230.9 billion won) and Antin Infrastructure Partners IV (196.5 billion won).

The pension fund’s 2021 annual report is only its second annual disclosure since NPS released its first annual report in August last year.

Chin Yuen contributed to this report