April 25, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] The number of firms in which Korea’s state pension operator has stakes of 10 percent or more has jumped more than 20 percent over the past year, a market tracker said on July 23.

The National Pension Service owned 10 percent or more of 106 listed companies as of last week, up 21.8 percent from the 87 a year earlier, according to FnGuide.

The NPS had interests of 10 percent or more in 98 companies listed on the country‘s main stock market, up from 78, with the comparable number for firms traded on the minor, tech-laden KOSDAQ market falling to eight from nine over the cited period.

The combined market value of the NPS stakes in those firms stood at 35.4 trillion won (US$31.20 billion), up 13.3 percent from a year earlier.

On the main market, the NPS had the highest stake of 14.45 percent in major builder Daelim Industrial, followed by Lotte Fine Chemicals with 13.63 percent and the TV network SBS with 13.56 percent.

The pension operator owned 9.9 percent of top-cap Samsung Electronics and 8.02 percent in leading automaker Hyundai Motor.

The NPS was the largest stakeholder in top steelmaker POSCO (10.82 percent), the biggest Internet portal Naver (10.21 percent) and the No. 2 mobile carrier KT (10.21 percent).

The data comes as the NPS is set to adopt the so-called stewardship code late this month, which refers to a set of principles or guidelines aimed at making institutional investors active and engaging in corporate governance in the interests of their beneficiaries.

By Song Seung-hyun and newswires (ssh@heraldcorp.com)