National Pension Service, South Korea’s largest institutional investor with 919 trillion won ($774 billion) under management, has newly hired Chinese private equity firm Hillhouse Capital Group for investments in Asia.

Hillhouse Capital is the third Asia-based private equity firm that National Pension Fund has hired to operate investment funds under consignment agreement after Chinese PEFs CDH and Hony Capital. The consignment agreement was made in the third quarter, according to the National Pension Service on Tuesday.

Hillhouse Capital is an Asia-focused private equity firm based in Beijing, China. Best known for its investment in big-name Chinese tech giants Baidu and Tencent, the company held assets under management of $69 billion as of March 2021. In Korea, the Chinese PEF had invested in online grocery store Market Kurly, food delivery app operator Woowa Brothers, and mobile game developer Krafton.

The PEF also specializes in growth investing, a strategy focused on increasing investor’s capital. The firm is known for offering investment larger than the investee company seeks based on its own judgment on the growth potential.

Analysts suspect National Pension Service is shifting its investment attention to up-and-coming startups with billions of dollars in corporate value and plans of going public on major stock markets, instead of sticking to companies in traditional industries.

The pension fund operator so far has assigned 67 private equity firms for management investment on its behalf. It added New York-based Warburg Pincus for overseas real estate investment and Canada-based Polar Asset Management Partners for hedge fund investment in the third quarter.

By Kang In-seon and Cho Jeehyun

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