개트윅[GATWICK] 어떤 공항이길래 - '외교적 투자'논란 [기사 원문]

국민연금공단이 영국 런던 제2공항인 개트윅공항의 지분 12%를 인수했습니다
영국 파이낸셜 타임스가 '좀 위험한 투자 아니냐' '국민연금은 정부의 2중대냐'
'바보 아냐' 뭐 이런, 좀 언쨚은 논조의 기사?를 게재했답니다
이 신문이 자주 비판적인 기사를 내는군요, 언쟎은 기분은 기분이고
내용이나 파악해 봅시다
'전광우씨를 이명박 대통령의 친구' 이런 식으로 썻네요

연합뉴스 보도로 국내에 알려졌는데요, 아래 원문입니다
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/3/35828bca-100b-11df-b278-00144feab49a.html
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South Korea NPS / Gatwick

Published: February 2 2010 14:58 | Last updated: February 2 2010 18:43

South Korea is on a mission to raise its international profile. Last month, the country signed its first nuclear export deal, worth $20bn, with the United Arab Emirates. The state-run Korea National Oil Corp has lined up $6.5bn for overseas acquisitions. Now the National Pension Service has said it will spend up to £100m to increase its stake in London’s Gatwick airport to 12 per cent from 1.3. In the year that South Korea sits as president of the Group of 20, Seoul seems determined to prove its global credentials.

In isolation, the Gatwick investment seems risky for a fund used to holding three-quarters of its $240bn portfolio in fixed income and only a 10th abroad. Last year, passenger numbers at London’s second airport fell 5 per cent and the single runway leaves the airport inherently constrained – for now.

Timing the market, though, is everything. In the past three months, passengers have begun to come back and the airport’s regulated returns make it an effective inflation hedge. The buy-in price seems fair and roughly in line with Gatwick’s regulated asset base versus premiums of 30 per cent that pension and infrastructure funds offered for UK regulated assets a few years ago. Furthermore, majority owner Global Infrastructure Partners has proved its expertise at London City airport.

The whole process, though, stokes suspicions that the NPS is acting as an instrument of South Korean foreign policy. Chairman Jun Kwang-woo, a friend of the president, Lee Myung-bak, replies that, while there may be overlap, his investment decisions are independent. Still, it is ironic that the NPS has cited British regulatory certainty as one reason for its investment given that it was UK regulators who ordered Spain’s Ferrovial to break up the British Airport Authority, so dismantling the original 2006 acquisition. It’s not just in South Korea that the line between business and politics is blurred.
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조선일보전재 연합뉴스 기사 http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/02/04/2010020400187.html
개트윅공항 위키피디아 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Gatwick_Airport