Korea Post is inviting local and international asset managers to bid on a 200 billion won (US$170 million) foreign environmental, social and governance mandate focusing primarily on equity exchange-traded funds.
It will hire two managers for three years each for the mandate, which is benchmarked against the MSCI ACWI ESG Universal Index, the government postal agency says in a statement on August 24. The mandate is for its insurance unit.
Applicants must have a minimum three-year investment track record, and at least 10 billion won worth of passive investment strategies.
Applications are open until September 6 and the managers will be chosen by October 6.
This is only the second equity-related ESG mandate for Korea Post. The first was this February, when it sought bids for four assets managers for a socially responsible domestic equity mandate of unspecified value. Like most Korean asset owners, the postal agency doesn’t publicly announce mandate results.
Korea Post had around 134 trillion won of assets as of end-2020.