Mirae Asset Broadens Turf

Company manages over 50 funds worth 14.4 tln won through overseas subsidiaries

Mirae Asset Management Co. has been one of the hardest working asset management companies in terms of overseas expansion this year.
The company has focused its efforts on finding new investment opportunities for their customers in places like India and China, two of the fastest growing markets in the world, thereby revving up its new growth engines, the company said recently.
The first stage of Mirae's overseas operation expansion has been to offer overseas funds managed by Mirae Asset to its domestic customers in order to share with its customers the fruits of the rapid growth of countries in Asia, led by China and India.
Riding on the back of its current success in the operation, the company launched the second stage of its effort in H2, by offering Mirae Asset's mainstream funds to foreign investors. Its Insight Fund, launched early in November has attracted over 2 trillion won from domestic investors.
The company has conducted research on Asian financial markets since 2001 in an effort to make inroads into the markets.
In 2003, it set up its wholly-owned subsidiaries in Hong Kong and Singapore, which are currently staffed by 80 professional fund managers and 40 of its own analysts. The company hired 30 analysts for its Hong Kong Mirae Asset Management Co. to take charge of analyzing the operations of all the listed companies in the Asia-Pacific region at its Global Research Center. The company plans to expand the research staff to around 50 by the first half of next year in order to upgrade the function of the research center.
Mirae Asset Singapore Asset Management Co. and Mirae Asset Hong Kong Asset Management Co. manage a total of 50 funds including India Fund, China Fund and Europe Fund, amounting to some 14.4 trillion won.
The company has been eyeing Vietnam as its next market through its office in Hanoi, which it set up in September 2006. The company also has been looking to make inroads into the overseas real estate market, possibly in advanced countries. The company set up Mirae Asset British Asset Management Co. in March, and has been undertaking various plans to conduct business in Britain. The company is in the process of setting up an asset management company in China as well.
Mirae Asset has been engaged in selling foreign funds to domestic investors and domestic funds to foreign investors through such funds as Independence and Discovery. The company is also drawing up a plan to sell similar versions of Mirae Asset's representative funds to investors in Hong Kong and Singapore, which will be launched within the year as soon as the company obtains the licenses to operate these funds.
Ultimately, Mirae Asset will build a network of offices in the Asia-Pacific region and major financial centers around the world and be known as a professional investment group representing the Asia-Pacific region.
Asset management group chairman Park Hyeon-joo said during a lecture at Ehwa Woman's University's economic department that the group is ready to launch a fund which was prepared in cooperation with a number of world famous IBs to ensure maximum profits in search of the flow of funds in foreign financial markets.
He said the Global Swing Fund,the first of its kind to be launched in the domestic financial market, will be invested 100 percent in Russia if its market looks promising or it will be invested in Japan if its market looks good. He said he will be personally involved in running the fund. The Mirae Asset Group top manager said he consulted with Goldman Sachs Asia Chairman Michael Evans on investment information research material and investment methods in foreign markets. He said he has conducted similar talks with leaders of UBS and Merrill Lynch.
Mirae Asset officials said the Global Swing Fund management cuts the time in making investments in global financial markets as regional time differences develop. However, the investment technique needs an extensive global research network and large global IB network, such as those in the United States, to begin to test the new investment method.
Park said he will let many female managers run the fund as it requires the ability to size up investment opportunities and make quick decisions and he believes female managers are best suited for this style of investing. nw

Chairman Park Hyeon-joo of Mirae Asset Management Co.: Mirae Asset Building located in downtown Seoul.