SEOUL (Reuters) -South Korea's pension fund supports the direction of the government's corporate reform plan aimed at resolving the so-called "Korea discount" in the stock market, its investment strategy director said on Thursday.
The National Pension Service, manager of the world's third-largest public pension fund, will make a decision on whether and to what extent it will allocate its assets after details of the reform plan are available, Director Lee Suc-won told a press conference held in Seoul.
The Korea discount refers to a tendency for South Korean companies to have lower valuations than global peers due to factors such as low dividend payouts, and the dominance of opaque conglomerates known as chaebols.
South Korea announced in February a reform plan, dubbed the "Corporate Value-up Programme", for listed companies to boost shareholder returns and stock prices, but the eagerly awaited proposals fell short of market expectations.
The country's financial regulator said on Thursday it will speed up the preparation of follow-up measures to the corporate reform plan and was considering bolder steps, such as tax incentives, to encourage voluntary participation.