Over 2 Tril. Won Invested in One Month
Samsung Life Insurance is increasing its investment in overseas real estate. Its investments (including the scheduled investment) in overseas real estate investment trusts over the past one-month period has exceeded two trillion won. For the first time in its history, the insurer has even bought a stake in an overseas asset management company recently.
The board of directors of Samsung Life Insurance approved on May 28 a plan to invest 1.18 trillion won in Samsung SRA Savills Specialized Investment-Type Private Equity Trust through Samsung SRA Asset Management.
Samsung Life Insurance also acquired a 25 percent stake in Savills Investment Management, an asset management affiliate of Savills, a global real estate company, for about 100 billion won on May 27, becoming its second-largest shareholder.
It marked the first time that Samsung Life Insurance has bought a stake in a foreign asset management company. Savills is a comprehensive real estate service company established in London in 1855 and is considered one of the world's top three real estate companies. Samsung Life Insurance acquired a 25 percent stake in Savills Investment Management, a wholly owned subsidiary of Savills. The Korean life insurer plans to participate in overseas investments and share investment information through Savills.
Samsung Life Insurance recently laid out its plan to increase the proportion of alternative investment, saying it will shift its operating stance to strengthening its profits.
The proportion of alternative investments in Samsung Life Insurance's assets under management increased from 8.9 percent (18.8 trillion won) at the end of 2018 to 9.9 percent (24.2 trillion won) at the end of March 2021. By 2025, the company is planning to ramp up its alternative investment to 40 trillion won and its proportion to 15 percent. In particular, the company is planning to scale up the proportion of overseas real estate and infrastructure from the current 25 percent to 43 percent. Alternative investments in Korea will be reduced to 57 percent from 75 percent.
At the end of the first quarter, Samsung Life Insurance's assets under management stood at 244,106.3 billion won and profit from its asset management at 2,188.5 billion won. Profit from real estate and other assets, which account for 1.59 percent of its total assets, stood high at 2.29 percent of its total profits. In 2020, it earned 218.9 billion won from real estate and other assets, or 7.7 percent of its total profit (2,813.5 billion).