[THE INVESTOR] Korea’s national pension fund said on July 1 it will adopt a defensive strategy for alternative investments into European markets to protect against potential shocks from the post-Brexit turmoil.

The National Pension Service, the world’s third-largest pension fund with 520 trillion won (US$450 billion) in assets, said it will keep a close eye on market conditions after Britain’s decision to leave the EU in order to achieve the 5 percent goal of the annual rate of return this year.


“The Brexit aftermath will last for a while on the financial market,” it said.

The country’s largest institutional investor reported 4.57 percent in the annual rate of return in 2015, lower than the average return of 4.7 percent for the 2011-2015 period,

This year, the NPS aims to boost the rate of return to 5 percent by increasing investments in alternative assets in low-risk advanced countries such as Singapore, Australia and the US.

(theinvestor@heraldcorp.com)