(Corrects to can offset losses in postal services with earnings from “managing savings” in paragraph 18, not “savings and insurance”)
By Heejin Kim
SEOUL, May 22 (Reuters) – Korea Post is seeking to invest funds it manages in AI data centres and multi-family houses in Europe and North America, as its postal service is squeezed by mounting losses from the mail business, its president told Reuters.
The state-run group, which manages 157 trillion won ($104.28 billion) in savings and insurance funds, sees opportunities in developed market real estate after a slump during the COVID-19 pandemic, In-hwan Park, president of Korea Post, said in an interview on Thursday.
Korea Post is still cautious on office buildings, but is looking at so-called secondary funds investing in data centres, logistics facilities and multi-family houses in North America and Europe.
“We think the valuations of properties in developed countries like the United States have been corrected a lot,” Park said. “So under these circumstances, we think secondaries look good.”
Such investments have a “margin of safety” and allow entry with discounts in stakes in underlying assets, he said.
It has selected Blackstone and Madison International Realty as preferred bidders to run its $230 million fund focused on overseas property secondaries.
The strategy reflects a broader global trend with assets under management linked to real estate secondaries estimated at $45.1 billion as of September 2025, up from $16.1 billion in 2016, according to investment data provider Preqin.
In November 2025, Singapore-based Aquilius Investment Partners said it had raised $1.1 billion for its second Asia Pacific real estate secondaries fund, the largest in the region of its kind.
POSTAL BUSINESS LOSSES
Despite the push into higher-yielding assets, Park said Korea Post still maintained a conservative and stable portfolio.
The 142-year-old postal service, which holds savings and insurance bought by retail investors, has a legal obligation to guarantee principal and interest.
Park said it still aimed to maintain its strategy of allocating around 70% of its funds to safe-haven assets, like bonds, citing rising market uncertainty due to the Iran war.
Demographic pressure in South Korea – where 20% of citizens are 65 or older – is also reinforcing the need to pursue low-risk assets with stable returns for retirees, he said.
For the remaining 30% of funds, however, Korea Post is seeking higher returns by investing more in mid-risk and mid-return products such as private debt and mezzanine finance, he said.
