Despite simultaneous CEO departures, Korean investors continue push overseas

Roughly halfway into their three-year terms, the CEOs of three major pension funds in South Korea stepped down this month — all without successors having been found — to run in the country’s April general election, according to The Korea Economic Daily. The now former CEOs are: Sung-Joo Kim, National Pension Service (NPS); Sung-Soo Cha Korean Teachers’ Credit Union (KTUC); and Gyeong-Ho Han, Public Officials Benefit Association (POBA).

As of yet, it is unclear if the departures will hamper the overseas investment push of these pension funds this year, but the momentum seems clearly to support the CIOs’ intended 2020 allocations, as indicated in the annual survey of Korean investor CIOs conducted this past October for the annual ASK Real Estate & Infrastructure Summit. In the survey, 52.4 percent of the 21 respondents intended to increase their real estate investments in 2020, while 42.9 percent indicated no change. And, overall, 71.4 percent of the CIOs