South Korea's $230 billion state pension fund plans to aggressively diversify its investment away from bonds into acquisitions of companies at home and abroad to boost profits, its president said on Tuesday.
Fallout from global financial turmoil could weigh on the world economy beyond this year, but now is about the best time for the National Pension Service (NPS) to start boosting investment abroad, President Park Hae-choon told reporters.
Opportunities to take over distressed foreign financial companies would fade by the end of this year, he said. "I think the market will close by year-end," said Park, who had run the country's third-largest lender, Woori Bank, until two months ago.
"Profits (from such acquisition) are often put in terms of tens of times, not by seven point something percent." Sovereign wealth funds have sprung into prominence in recent months after their high profile purchases in US and European financial stocks that have been hit by credit turmoil.
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