This is the second installment of a series of articles investigating financial activities of seniors during rapid digitalization of the finance industry. —Ed. Three years ago, a 32-year-old software developer surnamed Park bought an individual retirement pension plan, not knowing exactly what his corporate pension plan was as an employee. Holding a portfolio mix of stock funds and a bond fund, with one of the stock funds returning as high as 43 percent since inception, the private retir

South Korea‘s first-tier stock bourse index Kospi hit an all-time high Friday to close at over 3,300 points, maintaining a winning streak for the fourth consecutive day. This is the first time the composite benchmark index representing the Korea Exchange’s main board exceeded 3,300 points since its birth in 1980. The Kospi closed at 3,302.84 points on Friday, up 0.5 percent from the previous day. Its 808 listed companies‘ combined market cap stood at 2,311.6 trillion won ($2

South Korean auto parts maker Hanon Systems’ overvaluation concern due to foreign clients‘ delay in production is being offset by acquisition talks, analysts said Thursday. This comes as a major shareholder of Hanon Systems, private equity firm Hahn & Co., is considering selling a controlling stake in the thermal management automotive supplier. Hahn & Co. has named Morgan Stanley and Evercore as the deal manager, six years after it took over control of the company with Hank

Kakao, the operator of South Korean messenger app KakaoTalk, is on a record run on the domestic stock market Wednesday, narrowing the gap in terms of market capitalization with the incumbent No. 2 chipmaker SK hynix. Kakao rose 6.6 percent in closing from the previous day, bringing its total market capitalization to an all-time high of around 75.2 trillion won ($66.1 billion). This solidified Kakao’s position as a No. 3 by market cap on the Korea Exchange after electronics goods maker Sa

South Korea is the fastest-growing property investment destination for Canadian investors among the Asia-Pacific countries, data showed Wednesday. Canadian investors’ real estate transactions in Korea from 2016 to 2020, excluding deals smaller than $10 million, came to $3.5 billion, according to data from market intelligence firm Real Capital Analytics. The figure was 12.4 times higher than it was during the previous five-year period, from 2011 to 2015, showing the sharpest uptrend among

South Korea’s asset managers are counting on the global recovery from the coronavirus pandemic as vaccination gathers momentum. This, in turn, is adding fuel to Korean managers’ efforts to revisit industrial sectors that were hardest-hit by the virus impact. Shinhan Asset Management, an asset management arm of Korea’s banking group Shinhan, said Monday it plans to launch a second batch of its hybrid fund next week, in order to target companies reeling from the pandemic amid

South Korea’s domestic capital market is gearing up for a record year with a parade of initial public offerings set to eclipse a decade-old annual record of 10.1 trillion won ($8.9 billion), thanks to game developer Krafton’s expected blockbuster debut. This comes as Korean companies’ initial public offerings this year have already put their combined fundraising to a near-2020 level, according to IPO prospectuses submitted to Korean financial authorities. Through Sunday, 40

An anticipated regulatory change in South Korea will bolster growth of the burgeoning private equity industry led by large and reputable fund managers, a report showed Sunday. The revision of the Capital Markets Act, soon to be in effect starting October, aims to separate institutional funds and noninstitutional funds. It is largely aimed at protecting noninstitutional end-investors of private funds, as a number of misselling scandals had dented the fund industry over the past couple of years.

Stocks gifted to members of boy band BTS have snowballed to a combined value of nearly 150 billion won ($132.5 million) over the course of about 10 months. The gift -- 478,695 common shares of BTS’ management agency Hybe that were evenly distributed to the seven members -- is now valued at the domestic stock market at 149.8 billion won, as Hybe shares notched an all-time high for five straight trading days until Friday. This means members RM, Jin, Suga, J-hope, V, Jimin and Jungkook hav

Macquarie Korea Infrastructure Fund, which is listed on the Korea Exchange, has agreed to acquire the full 100 percent stake of two gas utilities for a combined 798 billion won ($714 million), a disclosure showed Wednesday. The gas utilities, Haeyang Energy and Seorabeol City Gas, distribute natural gas to ratepayers in South Jeolla Province and North Gyeongsang Province, respectively. MKIF said it pinned hopes on an upshot in industrial usage of natural gas in line with the carbon

South Korean game developer Krafton is looking to raise up to a record-high 5.6 trillion won ($5 billion) in an upcoming initial public offering on the Korea Exchange, which is likely to become the largest market debut here, a prospectus showed Wednesday.  Upon listing after the IPO, Krafton is expected to clinch the No. 1 spot among domestic gaming rivals with at least 23 trillion won market capitalization, exceeding the 18.6 trillion won of NCsoft and 11.3 trillion won of Netmarble on th

AsianInvestor, a Hong Kong-based publication dedicated to the investment activities of Asian asset owners, said Monday that it planned to offer a glimpse of the latest trends among Korean investors at a virtual event June 21-25. Institutional Investment Week Korea, the 14th event of its kind for Seoul investors, will focus on how Korean investors can rebalance their portfolios and build resilience into their investment strategies amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The annual event was canceled last y

US-based investment house First Eagle Investment Management and its mutual fund have cashed in a combined 35 billion won ($31.5 million) during a weeklong trade since late May from its investment in event-driven Namyang Dairy stock in South Korea, filings showed Friday. Shares of Namyang Dairy Products, hit a price ceiling immediately after an announcement on May 27 that local private equity firm Hahn & Co. will buy a controlling 52.6 percent stake in the firm from the owner family, includ

Koramco REITs & Trust said Thursday that it has been selected as the preferred bidder to buy an eco-friendly office building in eastern Seoul through its new blind pool fund. The investment target, East Central Tower, is a 42-story building with six underground floors and 100,422 square meters of gross floor space. The 4-year-old building houses tenants including Samsung Electronics, Samsung Construction & Trading, Samsung Medison and Fila Holdings. The prime office building has empl

South Korea’s only exchange-traded fund that focuses on global luxury goods stocks has outperformed Korea‘s benchmark index for the Korea Exchange’s main board Kospi over the course of 13 months since its launch, data showed Wednesday. The product, NH-Amundi Hanaro Global Luxury S&P ETF, has gained 78.1 percent since its launch on May 12 last year through Tuesday, beating the Kospi which gained 67.8 percent during the same period, according to data from NH-Amundi Asset Ma

Asia has been the epicenter of the plastic crisis, as the source of the bulk of the plastic waste in the oceans. But the right investments can help reduce plastic waste -- and South Korea, Asia’s fourth-largest economy, can take a leading role, according to Alfonso Garcia Mora, the International Finance Corp.’s regional vice president, Asia & Pacific. “Korea’s shift to a net-zero economy is likely to generate a range of innovative ideas and technologies,” Gar

Seoul-based KB Kookmin Bank has steered clear of litigation in controlling Indonesian subsidiary Bank Bukopin, as its minority shareholder in Indonesia dropped all charges against South Korea‘s largest commercial bank, a filing showed Tuesday. Bosowa Corporindo, which was holding a 11.6 percent stake in the Indonesian midsized bank, has reached an out-of-court settlement for the 20.8 trillion-Indonesian-rupiah ($1.5 billion) charges against the bank‘s new controlling shareholder an

South Korean asset management firm Mirae Asset Global Investments said Monday its assets under management for retirement schemes have surpassed the 10 trillion-won ($9 billion) mark for the first time among Korean peers. As of June 1, assets pooled for Mirae Asset’s retirement schemes came to a total of 10.1 trillion won. The asset management unit of Mirae Asset Group pooled nearly 2 trillion won during the first five months of 2021. Since 2011, the figure has jumped more than eightfold

Every financial services company yearns for benefits from artificial intelligence, but oftentimes, the technology itself does not necessarily bring success. Amid the intensifying technology race, a local AI solution provider behind the actively-managed equity exchange-traded funds listed on the New York Stock Exchange is seeking to prove its effectiveness.  “AI-enhanced ETFs’ track record is a testament to the thesis that AI can be an efficient tool to the entire financial in

Shareholder engagement in the form of behind-the-curtain dialogues or proxy voting, as well as engagement with asset owner clients, should be a key for asset managers to sustain the concept of green finance in Asia, investment professionals said Monday. There is no shortcut to navigate how to persuade Asian companies to commit to net-zero pledges. Incentives to achieve the sustainable goals have so far remained elusive, while on the other hand, asset prices have yet to fully reflect climate ri