Altius, Castling team up to target Korean institutional investors

Castling is a start-up alternatives investment advisory firm based in Korea. It was created by a local family office that wanted exposure to private equity but through an advisory-style model, generating returns on fund investments plus management fee revenues.

"Korean institutional investors appreciate a foreign brand name, but they also want local client servicing from experienced, senior-level professionals who are there to help them with all facets of their investment program and portfolio development, including post-investment monitoring and reporting services," said Steve Kim, partner and CIO at Castling, in a statement.

Castling provides end-to-end services for institutional investors' alternatives programs. It received its first external LP commitment, worth $80 million, from a local museum foundation last year.

The firm was looking to offer clients exposure to private equity through separate accounts and co-mingled vehicles on a sector-agnostic and region-agnostic basis. The tie-up with Altius is expected to facilitate access to global products.

The Korean institutional base has become popular with private equity firms globally, with investors arguably under-allocated to the asset class compared to other developed economies. Speaking to AVCJ last year, Kim said Castling's approach differs to that of international fund-of-funds players because it avoids the very large institutions in favor of targeting middle market groups.

Altius advises and manages approximately $24 billion in private equity and real assets funds for clients in Europe, North America and Australia.

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• Topics
• Fundraising
• Fund-of-funds
• North Asia
• South Korea
• Fundraising
• Castling Investment Group
• Altius Associates
• Fund-of-funds
• Separate accounts