Sovereign Wealth Fund KIC Reports 38 Trillion KRW Loss Last Year... Worst Ever Recorded

National Assembly Budget Committee Member Yang Kyung-sook's Office
"Lack of Investment Capability in Public Corporations"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwangho Lee] The sovereign wealth fund Korea Investment Corporation (KIC) recorded losses exceeding 38 trillion won in investments last year.

According to the '2022 Investment Status and Management Performance' data received by Yang Kyung-sook, a member of the National Assembly's Planning and Finance Committee (Democratic Party), from KIC on the 15th, KIC's annual investment loss last year amounted to 29.7 billion dollars (approximately 38 trillion won).

The annual total asset return rate also fell to a record low of -14.36%. In particular, the return on traditional asset investments such as stocks and bonds plummeted to -17.58% (stocks -19.27%, bonds -16.65%).

Accordingly, the cumulative profit and loss since its launch in 2005 sharply declined by 34%, from 87.9 billion dollars (approximately 104.6 trillion won) at the end of 2021 to 58.2 billion dollars (approximately 73.8 trillion won) at the end of last year, and the cumulative annualized return rate also dropped by 1.35 percentage points (p) from 5.47% to 4.12%.

As of the end of December last year, the asset allocation ratio by asset type of KIC shows that stocks and bonds accounted for 38.3% and 31.5%, respectively, while alternative assets stood at about 22.9%.

Assemblywoman Yang Kyung-sook pointed out, "The purpose of establishing KIC is to efficiently manage assets entrusted by the government, the Bank of Korea, and public funds to contribute to the development of the financial industry," adding, "The fact that this sovereign wealth fund recorded the lowest return rate in history last year reveals the corporation's lack of investment capability."