Mirae Asset Global leads overseas alternative investment markets
Mirae Asset Global Investments office in Shanghai / Courtesy of Mirae Asset Global Investments
Mirae Asset Global Investments, Mirae Asset Financial Group's asset management unit, is boasting its presence in overseas markets.
Mirae Asset Global said it is selling more than 1,700 financial products in 36 countries across the world.
A total of 160 trillion won ($136.9 billion) is currently being handled through the firm's financial products as of the end of September. Of the 160 trillion won, Mirae Asset Global is operating 73 trillion won, or 45 percent, in overseas markets.
Believing an increasing number of investors will eye less risky assets amid the low interest rate trend, Mirae Asset introduced a real estate fund jointly with a domestic private equity fund for the first time in Korea in 2004.
It has since rolled out various alternative investment financial products at home and abroad. It also introduced the nation's first equity fund investing foreign social overhead capital projects in 2009.
Mirae Asset Global is also demonstrating its strong presence in overseas commercial real estate markets.
In 2006, it acquired the Mirae Asset Tower in Shanghai whose market value is currently worth more than 1 trillion won, four times higher than its price when Mirae Asset first acquired it.
The firm also acquired 15 luxury hotels in the U.S., a package deal worth about 6.7 trillion won in August.
Chinese insurer Anbang Insurance Group placed its 15 luxury hotels in the U.S. on sale en bloc. The 15-property deal includes the Westin St. Francis in San Francisco, the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel, the JW Marriott Essex House in New York and the Four Seasons in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
“A wide range of alternative investment sources are essential to hedge possible risks amid the global downturn,” said a Mirae Asset Global official.