The National Pension Service (NPS) is pushing to co-host a "K-Finance Investor Relations (IR)" event in Asia this September together with the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS). If the NPS, one of the world's three largest pension funds, joins as a co-organizer, participation from global investors is expected to become more active.
According to the investment banking (IB) industry Monday, the NPS and the FSS are discussing a plan to jointly host the K-Finance IR, which will be held in early September. The event is likely to take place in the first week of September, and this year Asian locations such as Singapore and Hong Kong are expected to be selected.
The K-Finance IR is an overseas IR event jointly hosted by the FSS and financial firms. It has been held since 2023 to promote Korea's financial industry and system and to expand cooperation opportunities with global investors. However, the event was not held last year due to changes in market conditions and policy priorities. The FSS has decided to hold the event again this year for the first time in two years, and its consideration of co-hosting with the NPS is raising market expectations.
The discussion of co-hosting between the FSS and the NPS is an example of the NPS's expanding influence. As of the end of April this year, the NPS's fund size was tallied at approximately 1,670.7 trillion won. As the fund size has grown significantly amid the boom in the domestic stock market, the NPS's standing is considered to have grown even further. In fact, the NPS has been successively attracting global investment banks (IB) to Jeonju, backed by its financial power. Beyond simply attracting offices, the NPS is developing cooperation plans across all asset classes with firms such as Goldman Sachs, BlackRock and Allianz Global Investors.
There is growing weight behind the outlook that the scale of the event would expand significantly if the NPS participates. An official in the IB industry said, "If the NPS, one of the world's largest limited partners (LP), participates in the global market, various investors such as general partners (GP) will inevitably take interest and join the event."
The market analyzed that the active investment-attraction moves of NPS Chairman Kim Sung-joo, who took office last year, are also reflected. In fact, Chairman Kim has been accelerating investment attraction by expanding communication with asset managers. Chairman Kim has held discussions on private rental housing investment with domestic real estate investment managers, and has also gone on overseas business trips to countries such as the Netherlands and France to actively study the management know-how of foreign investors. Last month, he reportedly went on a business trip to China to look around the artificial intelligence (AI) industry as a whole. Another official in the IB industry said, "Communication with asset managers has increased since Chairman Kim took office," adding, "The joint IR appears to be taking place in the same context."
