South Korea’s National Pension Service (NPS), the world’s third-largest pension fund, agreed to buy a stake in Australia’s asset manager Metrics Credit Holdings Pty Ltd. to expand alternative investments.
The NPS and US real estate asset manager Townsend Group agreed to purchase a 4.17% stake in Metrics for A$50 million ($31.6 million), according to a filing with the Australian Securities Exchange Ltd. by Metric’s shareholder Pinnacle Investment Management Group Ltd. on March 13.
As part of the strategic investment, the NPS and Townsend will also invest in Metrics real estate-focused investment strategies.
“As one of the world’s largest pension funds, NPS, along with Townsend, a leading global real asset investment platform, will assist our future growth plans, both domestically and internationally ‒ particularly in our real estate strategies, an area where Townsend brings considerable expertise,” Metrics Managing Partner Andrew Lockhart said in a statement.
Metrics is a non-bank corporate lender and alternative asset manager with A$23 billion in assets under management (AUM).
ALTERNATIVE INVESTMENTS
The NPS, South Korea’s largest institutional investor, is expected to strengthen its cooperation for investments in alternative assets such as commercial property in Australia through the strategic partnership with Metrics and Townsend.
The state-run pension service, which manages 1,213 trillion won ($838.4 billion) as of the end of 2024, has already made sizeable alternative investments in Australia.
The pension scheme committed A$700 million in equity to a strategic partnership with Australian sector specialist Scape Australia, the country’s leading student housing company in January.
The NPS acquired an office building Melbourne Quarter Tower for A$1.2 billion in 2021 and a commercial skyscraper Aurora Place in Sydney for A$685 million in 2010.
By Gyeong-Ji Min
min@hankyung.com
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.
