Seoul: Global hedge fund Millennium Management LLC has entrusted $250 million to a Seoul-based asset management firm to invest in South Korea-listed companies, industry sources said Wednesday.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the New York-based hedge fund signed the consigned investment deal with Seoul-based Billionfold Asset Management Inc. Under the agreement, Billionfold Asset will manage the funds on behalf of Millennium, with the first round of investments to start this year.
A Billionfold Asset official declined to comment on the exact size and details of the agreement. The arrangement by the U.S. hedge fund reflects a growing appetite for South Korean stocks among foreign investors amid South Korea's new administration's push to boost the local capital market.
President Lee Jae Myung has declared stocks to be "the core of a capitalist market economy" and vowed to make the local stock market more attractive and transparent. The benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index, or KOSPI, had risen 18.5 percent in the one month period since President Lee took office in early June.