Korea’s National Pension Service (NPS) expects to suffer its first annual loss on foreign alternatives since the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 if red ink continues to spill on the investments.
The pension giant announced last week that it incurred a loss of around 6 trillion won (US$4.45 billion) on foreign alternative investments in the first half of the year, blaming it on the Korean won’s nearly 9% slide against the US dollar.
“The fund will incur its first annual loss in overseas alternative investments in five years if the investments continue to decline in the second half,” the NPS says in a statement on October 9.
It lost 2.38 trillion won on investments in private equity, 1.95 trillion won on infrastructure, and 1.68 trillion won on real estate, in the six months to June.
The losses came as the pension fund ramped up the share of foreign alternatives from 6.3% of assets in 2015 to 14.4% as of end-June. It is targeting to increase the share to 15% by 2028.
The NPS, the world’s third largest pension fund, had around 1,227 trillion won of assets under management as of March 2025.
