[THE INVESTOR] Korea’s homegrown private equity firm Glenwood plans to set up a 500 billion won (US$443 million) blind fund that will focus on investing in Korean companies abroad.

Industry sources say it’s the first time that such a fund has been formed with the goal of investing exclusively in Korean businesses abroad.

To finance the blind fund, Glenwood recently submitted a proposal to the National Pension Service to be selected as one of three mid-cap equity funds that it plans to support by providing 150 billion won each to manage. NPS is the world’s third-largest public pension fund with assets of over US$400 billion. 

Glenwood is a four-year-old private equity firm led by Lee Sang-ho, one of the sons of former Samsung Group Vice President Lee Hak-soo.

In 2014, a consortium of Glenwood and NongHyup PE bought consumer appliances manufacturer TongYang Magic for 280 billion won. Two years later, it was sold to SK Networks, a trading unit of SK Group, for 610 billion won to reap 330 billion won profit and a record 37 percent internal rate of return.

In April this year, Glenwood successfully exited from its second buyout, Lafarge Halla Cement, which it had invested in with Hong Kong-based PEF Baring Private Equity Asia in March 2016. The IRR was 14 percent.

By Park Ga-young (gypark@heraldcorp.com)