The new head of South Korea's sole bourse operator on Wednesday pledged all-out efforts to transform it into a holding company with a few subsidiaries in a bid to survive the rapidly changing market environment.

"Given internal and external necessities, a shift to a holding firm is a task we have to achieve at all costs," Korea Exchange CEO Jeong Chan-woo said, starting his three-year tenure.

The KRX has sought to go public and become a holding firm as part of efforts to strengthen governance and expand partnership with overseas bourses. But a related bill failed to pass the previous session of the National Assembly.

Addressing his inauguration ceremony held in the KRX's headquarters in Busan, Jeong stressed that the world's stock exchanges have been confronted with the "trend of changes in business conditions."

He pointed out that it is important to raise the profitability of the KRX via the diversification of business models.

"The KRX needs to create conditions for innovative start-ups to be found and emerge as global firms," Jeong said.

The KRX was launched in 2005 by consolidating the main board KOSPI, tech-heavy KOSDAQ and the derivative market.

Jeong, a former researcher at the Korea Institute of Finance and a professor at Chonnam National University, served as chief of the financial hub support team at the Ministry of Strategy and Finance. (Yonhap)