Korea Investment Corp. is looking to expand its overseas network with offices in Asia and the Middle East, said a senior KIC executive.
The $100 billion, Seoul-based sovereign wealth fund opened its first overseas office in New York in mid-2010 and its second in London at the end of 2011.
At a conference Thursday in Singapore hosted by the Investment Management Association of Singapore, Rhee Keehong, deputy chief investment officer as well as head of the centralized research center KIC launched at the start of 2014, mentioned Singapore, Beijing and Shanghai as possible sites for the fund’s next investment research offices.
“We’ve found that local knowledge and expertise (are) very important,” as KIC continues to expand its overseas investments and allocate more to alternative strategies, Mr. Rhee said during an asset owners’ panel discussion.
With that in mind, KIC is “trying to expand the number of its offices” overseas, with Singapore being one place under consideration, and Beijing and Shanghai likewise possibilities, Mr. Rhee said. Meanwhile, KIC’s team will “try to look for some place in the Middle East as well,” he added.
Mr. Rhee said KIC’s next offices will start out providing support for the fund’s regional allocations to areas such as private equity, infrastructure and real estate. If an office is opened in Singapore, there will be scope for covering commodities trading and corporate bonds as well, he said.
