A Record $173 Billion Flowing from Korea Into Risky Assets
- Korean investors buying alternative assets to boost returns
- Signs of trouble emerging in some of those investments
Pedestrians walks through a tunnel in Seoul.
Photographer: Seokyong Lee/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
A hunt for yield is prompting South Korean investors to pile tens of billions of dollars into unconventional assets abroad, raising risks of losses on unfamiliar products.
Holdings of overseas alternative assets such as real estate, infrastructure, private equity and debt, and hedge funds by investors in Asia’s fourth-largest economy rose to at least about 201 trillion won ($173 billion) this year, a record, according to data compiled by Samsung Securities Co. and Korea Investors Service Inc. That compares with 158 trillion won held by fund managers, pension funds, insurers and brokerages at the end of 2018 and 118 trillion won in 2017.