Korea's SEMA earmarks $125m for foreign PE funds

Doo-Young Chung, SEMA's chief investment officer, said the institution is considering committing KRW100 billion in the first half of the year, with US-based funds a particular area of interest. It will approach GPs privately rather than issue a public call for proposals, Mergermarket reported.

"We might increase the budget for global private equities gradually, as domestic investment is getting too competitive," Chung added. He expressed a preference for specialist technology investors, primarily in biotech, and also GPs with expertise in developed markets infrastructure.

Founded in 2003, SEMA had more than 40,000 members as of late last year, although only 15% of its potential members have so far joined the association. Assets under management (AUM) are on course to reach KRW4.2 trillion by the end of 2016 and Chung expects them to surpass KRW6 trillion within two years.

Having committed nearly 40% of AUM to real estate as of 2014, SEMA wants to reduce this allocation to 34% by 2017, while increasing the proportion of corporate investment to 33%. It has set an investment budget for 2016 of KRW1.33 trillion, half of which will be deployed in equities.

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• Topics
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