Government Employees Pension Service and US Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association (TIAA) Sign Alternative Investment Business Agreement

The Government Employees Pension Service announced on the 16th that it signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on strategic partnership with the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (hereinafter referred to as ‘TIAA’) on the 13th. The MOU was signed by Joo-Hyun Baek, Head of the Fund Management Division, and Emilia Wiener, Chief Investment Officer of TIAA, and the signing ceremony took place at Sangnok Hall in Seoul with key officials from Nuveen, an asset management subsidiary of TIAA, and the Pension Service in attendance.

Through this agreement, the Pension Service will jointly invest in North American alternative assets with TIAA and plans to construct a customized portfolio that meets the conditions for pension fund management. The execution of this investment will be handled by Churchill, a U.S. middle-market private alternative asset manager under Nuveen, and the Pension Service plans to contribute USD 100 million.

Additionally, TIAA will maintain a close cooperative relationship with the Pension Service by providing educational programs for sharing investment know-how, networking with local institutions, and sharing investment data. This strategic partnership with the global investment institution TIAA is expected to help the Pension Service overcome the limitations of discovering overseas investments due to the absence of overseas offices and create an opportunity to expand its investment base in the global market.

Head of the Fund Management Division Joo-Hyun Baek said, "Through this agreement, we hope to enhance the Pension Service’s investment returns and complement its investment capabilities by utilizing the advanced management system and investment infrastructure of TIAA, a trusted large institutional investor."

TIAA was established in 1918 by Andrew Carnegie to provide retirement solutions for American teachers. Through its investment subsidiaries such as Nuveen (a subsidiary of TIAA) and Churchill (a granddaughter company of TIAA), a U.S. private alternative asset manager, it manages assets worth USD 1.3 trillion and is responsible for the retirement of approximately 5 million members, making it the largest pension fund in the United States.