이 기사는 2021년 05월 26일 07:22 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

Teachers’ Pension, a South Korean pension scheme for private school educators, aims to enhance its investment returns this year, with the pension fund expected to be stricter when selecting its private equity (PE) managers.

Teachers’ Pension recently held the 320th board meeting to make decisions on annual audits and business evaluations for 2020 and finalize this year's management strategy, 'TP FOCUS 2021', industry sources said on Monday.

The pension fund’s assets under management exceeded 23.2 trillion won ($20.6 billion) last year thanks to improved return rates as it increased overseas and alternative investments and enhanced risk management. Teachers’ Pension logged a return rate of 11.49% with 2.14 trillion won investment gains, the strongest annual results ever.

To maintain its strong investment returns, the fund will focus on establishing a system to identify and manage potential risks in the investment market while promoting stable growth through investment diversification amid the global growth trend. Teachers’ Pension plans to put efforts into diversifying portfolios and enhancing stability in the alternative investment sector.

Teachers’ Pension aims to allocate 1.4 trillion won to alternative assets this year. Market insiders expect the pension scheme to expand its allocation to more diverse assets including PE funds, venture capital (VC) and credit funds. Teachers’ Pension awarded PE mandates worth 150 billion won to three managers and VC mandates worth 60 billion won to three managers last year. It is expected to announce concrete plans on this year’s investment project as early as next month.

The pension scheme also aims to enhance its stability. Market insiders said the pension scheme will apply tougher standards when assessing stability of PE managers this year. It is also likely to be stricter when monitoring its existing assets.

Teachers’ Pension targets a 4% return for both domestic and foreign alternative investments this year.

“Applicants will have to carefully prepare for their governance and personnel continuity as the evaluation criteria of institutional investors are becoming strict,” said an industry source. (Reporting by Ar-rum Rho)