Chairman Park Hyeon-joo of Mirae Asset Financial Group.

Mirae Asset Daewoo is aiming to be the largest investment bank in the world, as the company successfully boosted its capital to 8 trillion won by issuing new shares worth 700 billion won last month as part of its ambitious global strategy. The investment banking firm’s outlets in 11 countries will be the bridgehead for its overseas operation expansion.

It’s the most overseas outlets for any Korean rival firm. Each overseas subsidiary has capital amounting to around 2.3 trillion won as they are ready to focus on the growth strategy geared to market trends in each country in the region.

The subsidiary in Hong Kong has been acting as a bridgehead for the exploration of emerging countries around the world to take on the business of extending financial support to such deals as real estate and aerospace finance considered, mostly PI transactions. The Indonesian subsidiary ranks the 5th largest in the consignment sales among some 110 securities firms in the S.E. Asian country and moves to pick up such transactions as IPO to be a leading integrated securities firm.

Opened in 2007, the Vietnam subsidiary has been stepping up its work to create synergy with Mirae Asset Finance and other affiliates operating in the S.E. Asian country.

In Shanghai, China, the company’s local outlet has been engaged in research of the financial market while its outlet in Mumbai, India, has been moving to boost its capital by 300 billion won thru the issuance of new shares.

The London subsidiary is scheduled to boost its capital by 500 billion won soon while the New York subsidiary is ready to take on the hedge fund market as it got  a license for prime brokerage service (PBS) last year. The LA subsidiary is ready to take on wealth management as part of its strategy to strengthen the IB operation and diversify its operation. The company will develop its own segregated products and services taking advantage of its expansive global network.

Chairman Park Hyeon-joo said the company will shoot for 1 trillion won in net profit this year, a 50 percent increase from last year by expanding its overseas investment. The company will go ahead with the plan to be a leading IB firm in global terms and unfurl shareholder friendly policies to jointly share these coveted results, he added.

Mirae Asset Financial Group should parlay the organization, management and process to meeting the global standard, the group Chairman Park Hyeon-joo said in his New Year’s address. 

“We plan to set up a global investment bank center to significantly expand investments in venture capital as well as in private equity funds, real estate and social overhead capital (SOC) to become a market leader,” he said. In January 2016, Mirae Asset Securities agreed to buy a 43 percent stake in Daewoo Securities for 2.39 trillion won ($2 billion) in a deal that created South Korea’s largest brokerage by assets.

Daewoo Securities was spun off from the Daewoo Corporation in 1999 when the parent corporation was suffering from a debt crisis. When Daewoo was broken up the securities division was the largest source of profits within the firm. As well as a large number of branches around South Korea, It had an international presence in London and New York City. It was taken over by the Korea Development Bank.

The Korea Development Bank has developed Daewoo Securities into Investment Banking areas, using its large number of investors as a way of efficiently placing Initial Public Offerings, in much the same way as the American giant stockbroker Merrill Lynch operated in its heyday. One of the newer areas that Daewoo Securities has become involved in is corporate finance, where large companies borrow money.