South Korean asset management firm Mirae Asset Global Investments is poised to become a lead manager of the state-supervised investment pool of 63 Korean pension funds, according to the government on Wednesday.

The pension fund investment pool has been under the monitoring of the Ministry of Economy and Finance since it was established in December 2001 on the basis of the National Finance Act.

Mirae Asset will take the place of one of the current lead managers, Korea Investment Management, which has been nearing the end of its contract set for April. The contract of the other lead manager, Samsung Asset Management, expires in August.

Of the three bidders, along with Korea Investment Management and Hanwha Asset Management, Mirae Asset was selected as the most preferred, according to the Public Procurement Service.

A lead manager of the pension fund investment pool is responsible for organizing fund-of-funds structure with partners. The investment pool primarily targets Korean bonds and money market funds.

The pension fund investment pool was overseeing 31.3 trillion won ($28.4 billion) in assets as of November 2020. Korea Investment has been managing one-third of the total assets since 2013.

From January to November last year, the investment pool has been generating a 1 percent return on investment.

The Finance Ministry is expected to approve the decision by the end of January.

By Son Ji-hyoung (consnow@heraldcorp.com)