Yi Whan-woo is a Korea Times journalist primarily covering finance. He writes in-depth articles on macroeconomy and financial markets and previously covered sports, politics, diplomacy and inter-Korean affairs, among others. Feel free to contact him at yistory@koreatimes.co.kr.
Mirae Asset boasts global presence after 20 years of pioneering business
Headquarters of Mirae Asset Group, the parent company of Mirae Asset Securities, in downtown Seoul / Courtesy of Mirae Asset Securities
By Yi Whan-woo
Mirae Asset Securities has been aggressively pioneering the global market as a catalyst for growth for the past 20 years under Mirae Asset Financial Group Chairman Park Hyeon-joo's ambition to take Korea's financial conglomerate to new heights.
The chairman has openly said he wants Mirae Asset Financial Group to become Asia's top investment company that "rubs shoulder with" Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs.
Accordingly, Mirae Asset Securities took its business global in 2004, just five years after it was created in the group's nascent stage.
The company opened its first overseas office in the form of a corporate entity in Hong Kong, where Mirae Asset Global Investment advanced a year earlier under the group's strategy of reciprocal cooperation between the two closely connected affiliates.
The asset management firm operates in more than a dozen countries, including the United States, China, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Japan, India and Vietnam.
Mirae Asset Securities grew fast abroad, too. As of 2023, it boasted the largest global network — 12 subsidiaries and three offices — among the 14 Korean securities firms that advanced to overseas markets.
Its capital has grown by nearly 600-fold, exceeding about 4.5 trillion won ($3.4 billion) from 20 years ago when it started with an equity capital of $5 million.
Concerning its customers, the company said it earned more than 1 trillion won in profits through overseas stocks in 2023, the basis for reporting foreign stock capital gains tax.
Moreover, its accumulated profits since exceed 4.5 trillion won, according to the firm.
Mirae Asset's global presence reflects the group chairman's business principle that stresses global management for Korean enterprises to create wealth.
The group noted that its "consistent efforts to diversify profits through organic growth, inter-affiliate cooperation, and M&A" were behind its overseas expansion.
The company assessed its growth especially gained momentum after Park was appointed as the group's global strategy officer (GSO) in 2018 to oversee international business and investment of affiliates.
In 2023, Park promoted Rhee Jung-ho, the CEO of Mirae Asset Securities' Hong Kong unit, as the group's vice chairman in charge of overall global business, in the group-wide organizational reshuffle in Korea and abroad.
Of the products dealt by Mirae Asset Group, exchange-traded funds (ETF) make up a major portion of the profits.
As of 2023, the group managed more than 570 exchange-traded funds with net assets totaling 141 trillion won.
The amount is larger than the total size of Korea's domestic ETF market, which stands at about 120 trillion won.
One of the group's overseas ETF subsidiaries, Global X, for example, runs an array of popular ETFs, including the Global X US Tech Top 20, which invests in 20 leading technology-related large-cap companies listed on Nasdaq.
Net assets of Global X, the group's U.S. ETF issuer, surged to 66 trillion won in May, after starting from 8 trillion won at the time of acquisition in 2018.
The group is increasingly focusing on emerging markets. They include India that has a line of 20 ETFs and surpassed 1 trillion won in total net assets after the group launched its first ETF in 2018.
On the group's path toward a globally top-ranked investment firm, Mirae Asset Securities said it "will strive to remain ahead of competitors at an unsurpassable level."
Who is Park Hyeon-joo?
Park Hyeon-joo, chairman and founder of Mirae Asset Financial Group / Courtesy of Mirae Asset Securities
Park Hyeon-joo, chairman and founder of Mirae Asset Financial Group, is one of the iconic figures in the financial industry, which Korea is nurturing as its next growth engine.
He started his own business at age 39 in 1997 when he set up Mirae Asset Capital, with an initial capital of little more than 10 billion won.
Mirae Asset Capital is now one of 10 major affiliates of Mirae Asset Financial Group, which grew as a conglomerate solely made up of financial companies.
The areas of business range from securities to asset management, insurance and venture capital.
The group's capital also grew to over $330 million, with approximately $213 billion in assets under management in more than a dozen countries.
The financial magnate developed a variety of financial products. They include the country's first closed-end mutual fund named after him in 1998. He accordingly is known as "the father of Korea's mutual fund industry."
His success story was dealt as a case study at Harvard Business School in 2009, with topics on "Mirae Asset's Story in Global Growth" and "Entrepreneurship of Chairman Park Hyeon-joo."
Park is named as the recipient of this year's International Executive of the Year Award, which will be given by Academy of International Business. The award ceremony will take place in Seoul next month.
His business principle centers on overseas expansion. He reckons that Korean enterprises "were born to pursue" global growth, implicitly referring to the limited scale of the domestic market and consumers.