The Korea Federation of SMEs or KBIZ has opened two tenders for domestic alternative investments, one for a 470 billion won (US$345.5 million) private equity mandate and the other for a 110 billion won venture capital mandate.
The industry group for small and medium enterprises plans to appoint as many as 18 asset managers to oversee investments spanning from “general-sized” companies, small firms and startups, to debt assets.
Nine asset managers will be hired for the private equity mandate, four of whom will be responsible for investments in general-sized companies, KBIZ says in a request for proposal on August 13. They will each receive 70 billion won of funding.
Of the other five asset managers, three will focus on investments in small firms and get 30 billion won of funding each, while two will oversee investments in credit assets, each with 50 billion won of funding.
KBIZ is also looking to hire nine asset managers for the venture capital mandate, including four for investments in general-sized companies, with each receiving 20 billion won of funding. Two others will invest primarily in small-sized companies with 5 billion won of funding each.
KBIZ will also hire up to three asset managers to invest 20 billion won in Korean startups.
Asset managers bidding on both tenders should not have a record of violating financial regulations or being sanctioned by financial authorities more than twice over the past five years.
The winning bidders will be selected by the end of October.
This is the second time KBIZ is outsourcing investments thus far this year. The first was a tender for a 500 billion won domestic fixed income mandate in May. Like most Korean asset owners, the group didn’t announce the tender results publicly.
KBIZ was established in 1962 to safeguard the rights and interests of around 3.55 million Korean SMEs.
