Millennium, the world’s largest hedge fund, makes its first KRW 350 billion bet on the Korean stock market

Millennium Management, a US hedge fund managing assets worth KRW 100 trillion, is investing about KRW 350 billion in the Korean stock market. The investment will be made by entrusting funds to a domestic asset management company.

According to the asset management industry on the 6th, Millennium is planning to entrust a total of KRW 350 billion to Billionfold Asset Management. This will not be a direct investment but rather handled as an SMA (separately managed account) through a local asset management firm. Billionfold will exclusively manage the funds entrusted by Millennium according to their investment strategy.

This is the first time that Millennium, the world’s largest hedge fund, has entrusted funds to a domestic asset manager in order to invest in Korean listed companies. For the domestic fund management industry as well, Billionfold is the first case of officially being entrusted with funds from a global hedge fund. As a result, it is reported that Millennium previously consulted with Korean financial authorities to ensure there would be no legal issues with foreign funds being transferred to local financial firms.

Billionfold is a domestic hedge fund led by CEO Ahn Hyung-jin, known as an ‘investment guru’ and a former executive at Timefolio Asset Management. With this investment contract, Billionfold will manage KRW 4,000 billion, significantly exceeding its previous asset scale of KRW 2,500 billion. Depending on performance, Millennium may increase its allocation in the future.

Millennium is said to have taken note of Billionfold Asset Management’s steady and stable track record. When the KOSPI Index fell by 9.6% last year, Billionfold generated a return of about 1%, and when KOSPI fell by 24.9% in 2022, it achieved a 5% profit.

A financial investment industry source said, "Billionfold Asset Management posted a solid average annual return of 15% over the past five years," adding, "They positively evaluated Billionfold’s consistent and stable performance, which hasn’t wavered with the market."

The source continued, "The fact that the world’s largest hedge fund, Millennium, is investing in the Korean stock market through a domestic asset manager is encouraging news for both the market and the industry. Given the rising expectations for resolving the ‘Korea discount’ around the launch of the new administration, there is optimism that such cases of investment will continue."

Min-Kyung Shin, Hankyung.com reporter radio@hankyung.com