이 기사는 2020년 01월 17일 08:00 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

Yellow Umbrella, South Korea's mutual aid association for small and mid-sized business owners under Korea Federation of Small and Medium-sized Businesses (KBIZ), is expected to take an investment approach similar to last year’s moves.

Yellow Umbrella, with more than 11 trillion won ($10 billion) in total assets, plans to invest about 600 billion won ($518 million) in alternative assets in 2020, industry sources said on Monday. This is similar to last year’s figure.

Yellow Umbrella is expected to maintain its existing investment strategies, focusing on stability rather than high returns. “Yellow Umbrella is considered one of the most conservative investors among domestic institutions,” said an industry insider. “Given the nature of the institution, its investment stance is unlikely to change in the short term.”

Private debt is likely to be one of the major asset classes where Yellow Umbrella will put focus in the global alternative markets as it did last year. The institution reportedly made about five investments in private debt funds managed by global asset managers, including BlackRock and Blackstone Group, in 2019. Those funds mainly invest in Europe. This year, Yellow Umbrella is likely to allocate more to private debt funds that lend to the U.S. firms.

In addition, real estate is expected to account for a large portion of the institution’s alternative investments. Yellow Umbrella made about four investments in global real estate funds in 2019, focusing on diversification and risk-adjusted returns. Yellow Umbrella limits each investment up to $50 million according to its risk management policy.

In the domestic alternative markets, Yellow Umbrella’s focus is expected to be placed on participating in acquisition financing, including investing in new deals as well as investment opportunities in connection with recapitalizations and refinancing of PE-backed companies. Last year, it participated in acquisition financing by subscribing for privately placed notes largely issued by highly-rated companies.

Yellow Umbrella is also likely to continue its effort to expand its investment reach, as it attempted to source deals in Australia and Japan last year.

“Yellow Umbrella’s overseas alternative investments have been passive due to a large dependence on a handful of global private equity firms,” said an industry insider. “New investment opportunities sourced by working-level staff seem to have hardly passed the investment committee. [Yellow Umbrella] should make more efforts to diversify its investment approach.”

(By reporter Kim Byung-yoon)