Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. now manages more than 400 trillion won ($288 billion) in assets for the first time since its first global venture over two decades ago, following a slew of overseas mergers and acquisitions.
The South Korea-based investment giant announced on Wednesday that its assets under management (AUM) stand at 403 trillion won, of which 45%, or 181 trillion won, are managed across non-Korean markets, including the US, Vietnam, Brazil and India.
Its assets have steadily climbed from 250 trillion won in 2022 to 305 trillion won in 2023 and 378 trillion won in 2024.
Many attribute this milestone to the forward-looking vision of Park Hyeon-joo, founder and global strategy officer (GSO) of Mirae Asset Financial Group, who led the firm’s pursuit of overseas growth through mergers and acquisitions.
This achievement comes 22 years after the company became Korea’s first asset manager to launch a global business in 2003.
BIG BETS ON ETF
Park picked exchange-traded funds as a new growth engine as early as 2010, when the financial product was still unfamiliar to most Korean investors.
Under his leadership, Mirae Asset Global Investments acquired Horizons ETFs, a Canada-based ETF management firm now rebranded as Global X Canada, in 2011. In 2018, it took over New York-based ETF provider Global X.
The Korean investment firm has also looked beyond ETFs, placing Stockspot, a prominent Australian robo-advisor specialist, and Sharekhan, a major Indian brokerage firm, under its wings in 2023 and 2024, respectively.
These global M&As have significantly strengthened Mirae Asset’s international competitiveness, challenging earlier skepticism about Korean financial firms’ ability to compete directly with overseas rivals.
Park’s unwavering push has paid off.
Over the past decade, the average annual growth rate of global ETF management firms was 17.8%, while Mirae Asset Global Investments posted a rate of 34.4%.
Global X’s AUM alone has soared tenfold to 80 trillion won today from 8 trillion won in 2018.
In the Korean ETF market, Mirae Asset has rolled out a wide array of ETFs tracking global stock indices, like those in the US, China and Japan, under the TIGER brand.
The TIGER US S&P500 and TIGER US Nasdaq100 have grown into Asia’s biggest US index-tracking ETFs, with net assets of 8.2 trillion won and 4.9 trillion won, respectively.
AI AND RETIREMENT PENSION ON RADAR
Mirae Asset has lately turned its attention to artificial intelligence and retirement pension products.
Park once said, “AI will significantly lower fees for investment products and enhance asset allocation efficiency.”
“Don’t get hung up on global expansion strategies – AI is the global business.”
Designating robo-advisors as a future growth driver, Mirae Asset Global Investments plans to develop innovative products powered by AI.
Robo-advisors are digital platforms that offer automated, algorithm-driven investment services with minimal human intervention.
As part of the plan, the Korean financial group aims to enhance synergies across affiliates by leveraging its three main hubs – its AI unit WealthSpot in New York, its robo-advisor unit Stockspot in Australia and its Indian unit, Mirae Asset Capital Markets (India) Pvt., established in 2018.
Mirae Asset acquired Stockspot for $18 million in August 2023.
WealthSpot coordinates the AI financial strategies across the company’s overseas subsidiaries.
Mirae Asset has already been providing various AI services, targeting the Korean retirement pension market, which is estimated at 400 trillion won.
Retirement pensions have emerged as a key battleground among asset managers.
The group has developed 14 AI algorithms tailored for retirement pensions, covering asset allocation and thematic investment strategies. These algorithms have passed a testbed evaluation by Koscom under the control of the Financial Services Commission.
It also became the first Korean asset manager to introduce a retirement pension-dedicated robo-advisor, M-ROBO.
Korean financial companies have accelerated investments in robo-advisors for discretionary investment services since virtual financial advisors were approved for retirement pension investment at the end of last year.
By Man-Su Choe
bebop@hankyung.com
Sookyung Seo edited this article.
