Park Hyeon-joo, the founder and chairman of Mirae Asset Financial Group, said Thursday he would split the business of exchange-traded funds from the group’s asset management unit and aggressively seek merger and acquisition opportunities in the global market this year.
Park wrote a letter to the employees of the group on his flight to Los Angeles as a part of his business trip to the US, Brazil and Europe, according to Mirae Asset Global Investments, the asset management subsidiary of the group.
Mirae Asset Financial Group Chairman Park Hyeon-joo
“I will dispatch fund managers in alternative investment at the asset management unit around the world to introduce more stable and creative global funds. I will split off the ETF business so that (global) assets in ETFs could reach 15-20 trillion won ($13-17 billion) this year,” Park said in the letter originally addressed to employees.
“I will actively communicate with a firm who has a creative idea for the fourth industrial revolution. I will also participate in a foreign company’s M&A to make our business globally competent.”
He did not specifically mention which sector he was aiming an M&A at.
He also vowed to establish a “Trading Center” in the US or in Europe to attract and develop the best talent at Mirae Asset.
Sometimes dubbed Korea’s Warren Buffet, he also pledged to invest in smart farms, solar energy and the wind power sector in the country, “under the understanding of social groups.”
He also promised to keep investing in tourism infrastructure in the country.
In January, Mirae Asset and UK-based investment firm Castlepines agreed to finance more than 1 trillion won to build an oceans tourism report complex at Gyeongdo in Yeosu, South Jeolla Province.
The chairman’s solid and detailed letter, meanwhile, took on a different note towards the end, as he jokingly called US flight attendants ”granma style,” noting that he was on a US air carrier.
At the end of the letter, he said he has a fear of heights and he would often close his eyes during flights to overcome the fear.
“Because of my fear of heights, I feel scared when there is turbulence. I choose to close my eyes. But then again, (closing my eyes) doesn’t bother me because flight attendants on planes for US are grandmotherish anyway.”
Park’s letter to the employees came two years after the last one in March, 2015. Details of Park’s flight was not disclosed.
By Kim Yoon-mi (yoonmi@heraldcorp.com)
