Nuveen Gets $100M From Korea’s GEPS for US Private Capital Mandate

Nuveen has secured a $100 million commitment from South Korea’s Government Employees Pension Service for a US-focused private capital mandate.

GEPS selected Churchill Asset Management, a private equity arm of Chicago-based Nuveen, to oversee the investment, which aims to enhance the pension fund’s global portfolio by targeting US junior capital and private equity opportunities, Nuveen said Tuesday in a release.

In addition, Nuveen’s parent company, the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America, signed an agreement with GEPS outlining plans to maintain a close relationship by providing educational programmes, sharing investment knowledge and insight, networking with local organisations and sharing data.

“This mandate with GEPS marks another significant milestone for Nuveen and TIAA in the region as we continue to see growth in this strategically important market,” said Mike Perry, head of the global client group and global product at Nuveen. “It also underlines the importance of our presence on the ground here in Seoul and our commitment to finding mutually beneficial partnerships.”

Seeking Higher Growth

Nuveen’s partnership with GEPS comes as the $5 billion pension fund pursues higher-growth investments with an assist from global fund managers.

In July of last year, GEPS announced its selection of US giants Apollo Asset Management and Warburg Pincus, along with Sweden’s EQT, to manage the fund’s overseas private equity portfolio, with the three firms receiving a mandate of $40 million each. Apollo is taking on North American buyouts, Warburg Pincus is targeting North American pre-IPO companies and EQT is focused on European buyouts.

GEPS is also taking bids for management of the fund’s overseas real estate debt portfolio, with investment titans Blackstone, KKR, Goldman Sachs and Starwood Capital on the shortlist, the Korea Economic Daily reported in August of last year. GEPS plans to select two firms and commit up to $35 million to each.

The latest tie-up sees GEPS tapping the know-how of Churchill Asset Management, a former Carlyle Group unit that joined TIAA in 2015. Manhattan-based Churchill oversees $50 billion in committed capital across direct lending and private equity investments.

GEPS chief investment officer Baek Joohyun described the mandate as an important step in the fund’s strategic evolution.

“Leveraging the investment expertise across Nuveen’s global offering will not only improve our portfolio’s operating profitability but also enhance GEPS’s overall investment capacity as a global institutional investor,” Baek said.

Local Property Bets

Nuveen’s real estate division recently made its first office investment in South Korea with the purchase of a central Seoul building for a reported KRW 350 billion ($250 million).

The acquisition of the Jeongdong Building in the South Korean capital’s Jung business district from IGIS Asset Management is understood to have been made under Nuveen’s Asia Pacific Cities strategy. The fund manager previously picked up a last-mile logistics facility south of Seoul and a warehouse northeast of the capital.

Nuveen had $1.3 trillion in assets under management at the end of September across operations in 27 countries.