State-run Korea Development Bank said Friday it had chosen two external partners to operate funds with a combined 120 billion won ($99.2 million) of public money to support South Korea’s drive for supply chain autonomy.

The two partners are BNW Investment-Industrial Bank of Korea consortium and SKS Private Equity-Korea Investment Private Equity group. These were among nine applicants to manage the funds.

Each group is mandated to attract at least 40 billion won investment from the private sector, to take the total value of each fund above 100 billion won by July 31. For the BNW Investment-IBK consortium, fundraising from IBK will not count as part of the 40 billion won private sector investment.

These funds will target the materials, components and equipment sectors to achieve supply chain autonomy, KDB Chairman Lee Dong-gull said in a statement.

It is part of the policy bank's move this year to earmark a total of 400 billion won of investment in these areas. Half of it will go to blind pool funds, whereas the rest will be used to create project funds -- which accept applications from external partners on a rolling basis.

By Son Ji-hyoung (consnow@heraldcorp.com)