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Korea Scrapped Its New Sovereign Fund, Now KIC Gets an Extra Mandate

16th July, 2026

South Korea has abandoned plans for a standalone sovereign wealth fund after failing to establish a clear place for it within an already crowded system of state capital. Seoul will instead create a strategic investment account inside the Korean Investment Corporation (KIC), retaining the programme while dropping the instit3ution designed to carry it out.

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KIC to join GIC with its sixth overseas office in Tokyo

8th June, 2026

On Thursday last week, South Korea’s sovereign wealth fund announced the opening of Tokyo office next month, with the goal of expanding investments in Japan, including both public markets and alternatives. This will be KIC’s sixth office outside of its headquarters in Seoul, after New York (opened in 2010), London (2011), Singapore (2017), San Francisco (2021), and Mumbai (2024).

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Korea’s New Fund Moves From Public-Asset Idea To State Equity Test

3rd June, 2026

South Korea’s proposed Korea Future Investment Corporation gives the Lee Jae-myung administration a more defined state capital tool than the sovereign fund outlined in December.

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NPS Turns Korean Equity Rally Into Allocation Policy

29th May, 2026

South Korea’s National Pension Service has turned its domestic equity problem into allocation policy, as it tries to balance political objectives with its commercial mandate while having considerable heft in local markets.

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KIA’s Korea Entry Tests Kuwait’s Sovereign Capital Sequencing

4th May, 2026

Kuwait Investment Authority’s (KIA) reported entry into Seoul’s Yeouido IFC points to continued external capital deployment at a time when Kuwait’s oil export system is under acute pressure.

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Seoul’s new US$900bn sovereign wealth fund: mandate, strategy and risks

16th December, 2025

South Korea’s Lee Jae-myung administration is set to launch a new sovereign wealth fund in 2026 with a view to tackling long-term issues of weak growth, rising economic polarisation, and intensifying global competition in advanced industries.

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PIF in Developed Asia: Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea

4th December, 2025

Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) is deploying only around 20% of its capital abroad, but within that slice, Developed Asia has become a small but strategically important cluster.

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NPS mid-2025: Solid Returns, Currency Volatility, and a Strategic Tilt

9th September, 2025

South Korea’s National Pension Service (NPS) posted a +4.08% money-weighted return in the first half of 2025, generating KRW 49.8 trillion (US$36.9 billion) of investment income.

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KIC at 20: A Strategic Change or Time to Catch Up?

4th July, 2025

The Korea Investment Corporation (KIC) is celebrating its 20th anniversary, and South Korea's only sovereign wealth fund is at a crucial turning point.

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NPS Bets Big on Real Estate and AI, But Can It Outrun Demographic Collapse?

12th February, 2025

South Korea’s US$827 billion National Pension Service (NPS) is making some of its boldest investment moves yet.

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Fund of the Month (Nov'23): Public Officials Benefit Association (POBA)

1st November, 2023

Among S. Korean pension funds, the Public Officials Benefit Association (POBA) is known for having modernized its approach to asset allocation and for having boosted AuM and returns in the past few years. We had the great pleasure of speaking with the engineer of such change as the fund’s CIO between 2016 and 2022, Mr. Dong Hun Jang, about the country’s pension system, the fund’s history, and the changes he pushed for during his tenure.

The Challenges Facing South Korea’s New Pensions Supremo

7th September, 2022

South Korea’s National Pension Service (NPS) has appointed a new chair as the fund faces a set of challenges amid an increasingly difficult economic outlook.

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