The headquarters of the National Pension Service Investment Management in Jeonju, southwestern South Korea. (image: NPS)
SEOUL, Oct. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s state pension fund has been found to have invested a large sum of money in the so-called “sin stocks” that include liquor, tobacco and gambling businesses, data showed Tuesday.
Rep. Nam In-soon of the Democratic Party referred to an National Pension Service (NPS) report that around 5.29 trillion won (US$3.71 billion) had been invested in sin stocks as of last February.
The NPS’s domestic investment in sin stocks temporarily dropped from 2.37 trillion won to 1.61 trillion won between 2017 and last year, before climbing back to 1.68 trillion won last February.
The pension service’s foreign investment in sin stocks gradually increased from 2.65 trillion won to 3.98 trillion won between 2017 and last year. As of last February, it had dropped slightly to 3.88 trillion won.
Among the NPS’s domestic sin stock investments, 52.1 percent was allotted to KT&G Corp., South Korea’s dominant tobacco company, followed by the state-run casino operator Kangwon Land Inc. (23.3 percent) and beverage company Hite Jinro Co. (12.9 percent).
The NPS also invested in foreign liquor, tobacco and gambling businesses including Philip Morris International Inc., Heineken N.V., Diageo plc, British American Tobacco plc and AB InBev.
Ashley Song (ashley@koreabizwire.com)
