[THE INVESTOR] South Korea’s National Pension Service has named seven private equity firms to run 200 billion won ($172 million) of its funds, the pension giant said on Thursday.

The NPS, which oversees $430 billion in assets, hired Aju IB Investment and KTB Network as general manager of the venture fund. Five others including Medici Investment, Seoul Investment Partners, Wonik Investment Partners, Innopolis Partners and G.N.Tech Venture Capital were named as preliminary mangers. 


“Through the venture fund, the NTS will discover investment opportunities for promising new technology business and improve returns by diversify our fund portfolio,” said Kang Myun-wook, chief investment officer of the NPS.

They are categorized into two groups based on whether they have previous experience handing the pension fund’s assets.

The general operators will run 50 billion won of entrusted funds for each while some 20 billion won each will be allocated to the preliminary managers.

By Park Han-na (hnpark@heraldcorp.com)