Ardian, one of Europe’s largest private-investment managers, has opened an office in South Korea.

The Paris-based PEF said on Monday its Seoul office, which is the fourth Asian operation in Asia following Singapore, Beijing and Tokyo, is now open.

Ardian operates 15 offices across the world and has assets of $82 billion under management. In Asia alone, it has 122 investments amounting nearly $3.5 billion.

“Our investor base in Asia continues to expand, and it is a market which we see as a major growth opportunity for Ardian. We already have a dozen Korean clients accounting for more than $1.4 billion assets under management,” said Jan Philipp Schmitz, Ardian’s head of Asia.

The Korean office, which will be headed by Won Ha who has been with Ardian since 2011, will focus on serving Korean institutional investors and increasing private equity investment in Korean companies. The country’s National Pension Service is the world’s third largest pension fund with $570 billion in assets, and it has been lately diversifying its investment portfolio by actively adding alternative assets and foreign assets.

The main products of Ardian’s Seoul office will be funds of funds and co-investments, Ardian said in a press statement.

Ardian has 750 investors in different asset classes ranging from secondary, buyout and infrastructure.

By Han Woo-ram and Cho Jeehyun

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