Kang Myoun-Wook, chief investment officer of the National Pension Service of Korea, has this week expressed his intent to leave the $500 billion pension fund for personal reasons, Private Equity International has learned.
A spokesperson for NPS said that the pension fund's senior leadership team is still discussing Kang’s resignation but declined to add further details.
Kang, who assumed his post on February 2016, is the first CIO unable to complete his two-year post, local media reported.
Earlier this month the pension fund reportedly fired its global alternatives investment head, Kim Jae-Sang, over an inaccuracy in his curriculum vitae and his work history. It was said that Kang stated in his CV he had served as an alternative investment head of South Korea’s Meritz Asset Management for three years. NPS later uncovered after verification checks he had worked for a unit of Meritz Asset for only one year instead of three years.
NPS declined to comment on Kim’s departure.
The pension fund has been faced with a senior management shake-up after state prosecutors raided its headquarters and its state chairman Moon Hyung-Pyo was arrested as part of a corruption probe at the end of last year. NPS has also had more than 20 departures since 2016, following an announcement it would move its headquarters in Seoul to Jeonju.
Following an exodus of investment professionals, the world’s third-largest pension fund said it is actively looking for more external managers as it expands its overseas asset exposure. NPS opened offices in New York, London and Singapore in the last six years and expects to strengthen its presence in these regions.
In it latest annual report, NPS said its global alternatives portfolio returned 12.34 percent, compared with its domestic alternatives portfolio which had generated 5.74 percent.
The pension fund’s allocation to alternatives had grown to 11.4 percent of its total assets, increasing by KRW 9 trillion ($7.98 billion; €7.13 billion) year-on-year to KRW 63.7 trillion for fiscal 2016.
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