Korea's KIC appoints new CIO

Over the past two months, the sovereign wealth fund has appointed a new COO, compliance officer and chief risk officer. This followed the introduction of Sung-Soo Eun, previously an executive director at the World Bank, as CEO and board chairman in January.

Eun said in his inaugural address that KIC needed to be more transparent in its management processes and implement more stringent internal controls, saying that the group's "very existence could come into question without change and innovation." This followed criticism from state auditors, as well as from the National Assembly and the media.

Eun's predecessor, Hong-Chul Ahn, departed last November, two years into a three-year term, citing personal reasons. He was pilloried for poor investment performance, mismanagement and alleged irregularities.

As of year-end 2015, KIC had $91.8 billion in assets, of which $11.4 billion was deployed in alternatives, up from $6.8 billion a year earlier. The fund had $3.5 billion in private equity, $4.5 billion in hedge funds, and $3.1 billion in real estate and infrastructure. The private equity portfolio has grown from $3.2 billion in 2014, $2.6 billion in 2013 and $1.1 billion in 2012.

The private equity return - in US dollar terms - since it began investing in the asset class in 2009 is 4.56%, and 6.78% for alternatives as a whole. Following a -3% return on total assets in 2015, KIC's five-year annualized return is 3.38% and the annualized return since inception stands at 3.23%.

• Tweet  
• Facebook  
• LinkedIn  
• Google plus  
• Save this article  
• Send to  

• Topics
• North Asia
• LPs
• People
• Appointments
• KIC
• South Korea