NPS is making a push into global real estate platforms
South Korea’s National Pension Service has formed a private real estate venture with a unit of US investment manager Neuberger Berman, with the strategy setting an initial goal to deploy $800 million in capital in a general partner role.
The NPS and Manhattan-based Neuberger Berman’s Almanac Realty Investors will make investments in real estate platforms globally via managed vehicles, aiming to scale the relationship over time, the partners said Tuesday in a release.
The platform investing approach optimises value creation and aligns with the long-term growth strategy of the $800 billion pension fund, said Insub Park, senior portfolio manager for NPS’s newly created real estate platform investment team.
“The Almanac team has demonstrated unparalleled expertise and leadership in this domain,” Park said. “Looking ahead, we are committed to building on this collaboration, focusing on strengthening our long-term relationship and delivering exceptional outcomes together.”
Fund Extends Reach
NPS set up the real estate platform investment team last year with a mandate to identify and invest in established and emerging platforms and acquire minority equity stakes in real estate investment managers.
Neuberger Berman chairman and CEO George H Walker
The new partnership includes anchor commitments to Almanac’s flagship strategy focused on providing growth capital to real estate operating companies, as well as an existing Almanac strategy dedicated to acquiring minority stakes in institutional real estate investment managers.
The partners will also make a “significant commitment” to a newly formed vehicle, exclusive to NPS, whereby Almanac will advise and assist the Korean institution with transactions across certain platform and general-partner stake opportunities sourced by the NPS team.
Founded in 1981 as a Rothschild family vehicle and acquired by Neuberger Berman in 2020, Almanac has committed more than $8.3 billion in capital to 56 public and private real estate companies in North America.
“Our Almanac group has long-running relationships with industry institutions and the experience and expertise to source opportunities,” said George H Walker, chairman and CEO of Neuberger Berman. “We look forward to bringing the diversification and returns of this asset class to this important pension fund client.”
Leaning Into Alternatives
Jeonju-based NPS has signalled a more aggressive stance recently, with the pension manager announcing a plan last May to boost the ratio of alternative investments in the portfolio and help the fund generate a 5.4 percent rate of return over the next five years.
In August, President Yoon Suk Yeol pledged to reform NPS to make the system more equitable and ensure income security for South Korea’s ageing population.
“A pension system that leaves the elderly poor and young people suspicious must fundamentally be reformed,” said Yoon, who was arrested by authorities Wednesday as part of an insurrection investigation.
The Korea Economic Daily reported in December that NPS planned to invest $1.4 billion in the domestic real estate market in 2025 to gain from an expected recovery in the commercial property sector amid low borrowing costs.
A month earlier the pension manager had picked Koramco Asset Management and Hana Alternative Asset Management to oversee NPS’s real estate debt fund valued at $436 million.
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