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 emerges as leader in alternative investments
Mirae Asset Tower, located in Shanghai's Pudong District, China / Courtesy of Mirae Asset Global Investments
By Anna J. Park
By Anna J. Park
Mirae Asset Global Investments has solidified its position as an alternative investment leader here, continuing to offer investors a variety of opportunities to invest in overseas assets.
Currently the firm sells over 1,700 products in 36 countries, and 47 percent of its total Assets Under Management (AUM) of 172 trillion won ($141 billion), as of the end of February, is invested in various overseas markets.
The asset manager has pioneered alternative investments in Korea. In 2004, it launched Korea's first Private Equity Fund (PEF) and real estate fund, followed by the nation's very first overseas fund that invested in social infrastructure, its social overhead capital (SOC) fund in 2009.
Now the company runs over 20 trillion won in alternative investments projects, providing stable wealth options to clients against the backdrop of low interest rates.
Specifically, Mirae Asset Tower, located in Shanghai's Pudong District, is estimated to be currently worth about one trillion won; four times the purchase price back in 2006.
The firm also successfully took over dozens of luxury hotels until recently, including the Four Seasons in Sydney and Korea, as well as Fairmont Hotels in Hawaii and San Francisco.
Since 2009, the firm has invested in various overseas infrastructure projects, including roads, hospitals and light rail projects in Spain, and a freeway and solar power station in Australia.
In 2011, Mirae Asset Global Investments acquired U.S.-based Acushnet Holdings Company, best known for its product brands such as Titleist, FootJoy and Scotty Cameron, among others.
The company also made a success in property exits abroad.
The sales of Taunusanlage 8, a prime office building in Germany, in June 2019, delivered an internal rate of return (IRR) of over 25 percent for Mirae. In December, it earned proceeds of over 500 million euros by selling a building in Cologne, Germany, in December.