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.
Mirae Asset's 20-year old Independence Equity Fund delivers highest return
Logo of Mirae Asset Global Investments
By Anna J. Park
By Anna J. Park
Mirae Asset's Independence Equity Fund, Korea's first open-end mutual equity fund launched in February 2001, has posted a cumulative investment return of 1,341 percent as of this week. An open-end mutual fund is a diversified portfolio of money pooled from investors that can issue an unlimited number of shares.
According to financial information portal, FnGuide, the Independence Equity Fund's rate of return was the highest among all mutual funds in Korea with assets under management (AUM) totaling more than 10 billion won ($8.9 million) since its inception. The AUM of the fund once reached nearly two trillion won in early 2008, when the products enjoyed massive popularity.
The firm's Discovery Fund, launched in July 2001, logged the second highest rate of return among such funds here at 1,216 percent.
Mirae Asset Financial Group said the successes highlight the importance of long-term investment, highlighting its strong research capability.
“With the local stock markets' recent bullish moves, our oldest mutual fund products launched 20 years ago are logging over 1,000 percent in returns, proving the positive effect of long-term investments,” a company official said.
The official added that Mirae Asset Global Investments, the asset management arm of the financial group, relies on the firm's own research capabilities, rather than on individual fund managers from other firms. The division was the first among local asset managers to set up an in-house research department in 2006.
Mirae Asset Global Investments currently has 138.6 trillion won in AUM as of the end of March this year, the second highest among domestic asset managers and second after Samsung Asset Management, with an AUM of 255.3 trillion won.