Chairman Park Hyeon-joo of Mirae Asset Group has set his eyes on the creation of an energy fund jointly with the Korea Electric Power Corp with 500 billion won in assets.
The chairman’s burning ambition has helped propel him to become the top manager of the largest securities firm in Korea barely 20 years after he stepped foot in the securities industry. Mirae Asset Daewoo Securities was officially launched as the largest securities firm in Korea on Dec. 29.
The new energy fund will invest in new power-related industrial sectors as part of Chairman Park’s devotion to social contributions, this time in new growth sectors opening up in the energy industry in Korea.
The official Year-End Party for the group and its affiliates was held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Gwanghwamun, downtown Seoul in the evening of Dec. 29, following the official launching of Mirae Asset Daewoo Securities earlier in the day. At the event, the chairman said the recently established Energy Infrastructure Asset Management will manage the energy fund.
Mirae Asset Management and Mirae Asset Global Investment jointly set up Infrastructure Asset Management, which was selected to oversee the new 2 trillion won power industrial fund that KEPTCO set up. Five-hundred billion won, one-fourth of the fund, will be the first installment of the utility fund to be managed by the Energy Infrastructure Asset Management for investments in new and recycled energy projects at home and overseas, in line with the Mirae Asset’s plan to invest not only in power projects, but also new and recycled energy projects at home and abroad.
Mirae Asset plans to invest some 10 trillion won in such industrial areas as bio-healthcare and new and recycled energy sectors in the coming 10 years.
Mirae Asset Group jointly established a venture with assets of 100 billion won with Naver to back up the growth of technology development in Korea, and is in last-stage talks with Chairman Suh Jong-jin of Centrion Group to form a venture fund to invest in the bio sector.
Chairman Park has been talking about corporate social contributions on the heel of the launch of Mirae Asset Daewoo Securities, the largest securities firm in Korea. His talks are concerned with the creation of a place where next-generation business people can incubate their business projects and grow with them, while the investment banking arm of the largest securities firm would expand to be the biggest in the country and lead changes in society by investing in the new growth areas to do its job in full as a responsible corporate citizen by creating jobs for youths.
The chairman will have Mirae Asset Daewoo Securities do its best to expand the assets of its clients, especially those who are up for retirement in the near future, so that they could enjoy their retired lives. Park always called on the company to be a permanent innovator moving toward its future
“Mirae Asset Daewoo will merge Mirae Asset Securities to raise management efficiency and create synergy,” Mirae Asset Daewoo said in a regulatory filing in Seoul in 2016. The merger took place Nov. 1 with a ratio of 1:2.97 based on the two’s stock price. New shares launched on the bourse on Nov. 28. The plan was endorsed by shareholders of the companies.
“Mirae Asset Daewoo will survive, while Mirae Asset Securities will be dissolved after the merger,” the group’s spokesperson explained. “For Mirae Asset, this is not just a merger of two units. It is the launch of a new investment bank,” he said.
The group, headed by the iconic, self-made financier Park Hyeon-joo, aims to grow into a regional player in the investment banking field. The 2.3 trillion won buy of Daewoo Securities was a step toward that direction, the group‘s founder and current chairman Park said.
