Anna Jiwon Park has been covering the politics at The Korea Times since the summer of 2024, when she joined the press pool for the Office of the President in Korea. Prior to that, she spent about five years reporting extensively on financial markets, regulatory authorities and the financial industry. She joined The Korea Times in 2019 after spending eight years as a broadcast journalist at Arirang TV, Korea’s leading global broadcaster, covering politics, defense and culture.
Korea Investment to strengthen overseas drive
Korea Investment & Securities / Courtesy of Korea Investment & Securities
By Anna J. Park
By Anna J. Park
Korea Investment & Securities is seeking to strengthen its foothold abroad by reorganizing its departments to place more emphasis on its overseas business starting this month.
A company official said the brokerage house aims to create a new division that will be exclusively in charge of overseas investment projects and the management of global offices in major cities, including London, New York, Beijing, Hong Kong and Singapore. The Hong Kong branch, in particular, is the largest overseas office of the securities firm.
A legal affairs office will also be newly set up under the overseas division. The legal team will provide legal counseling and reviews on various investment deals led by investment banking departments, as well as businesses at the offices in other countries.
The new overseas drive reflects the determinations of Korea Investment Holdings Chairman and CEO Kim Nam-goo who said the financial group will focus on finding M&A opportunities overseas during a shareholder's meeting in March.
The chairman stressed that now is a great time to find M&A chances, as many of global financial companies' values have declined due to COVID-19.
According to CEO Score, Korea Investment Holdings, a holding company of the brokerage house, recorded 47.1 billion won ($38.1 million) in overseas revenue last year, up 25.59 percent from the previous year.
However, it only accounted for about 0.43 percent of the firm's total revenue of 10.2 trillion won in 2019.