From its very early years, South Korea’s leading asset management firm Mirae Asset Global Investments has kept ahead of its competitors in expanding business overseas -- a strategy turning out to be rewarding in recent years.

The company has launched an asset management firm in Vietnam this year in partnership with the Southeast Asian country’s State Capital Investment Corporation, expanding its business leverage in the area, according to officials.

“Based on our research capacities, which we have built up since opening our first local office in 2006, we shall henceforth move beyond conventional asset management and expand into alternative investments in Southeast Asia,” said a company official. 

According to the Financial Supervisory Service data, Mirae Asset Global Investments accounted for 26 percent of the total overseas offices and branches by South Korean asset management operators as of the end of last year.

The company is also recognized as the only South Korean asset management operator that directly sells funds in its overseas branches and offices, holding some 22 trillion won ($20 billion) in offshore funds and investing around 40 percent of its entire assets into outbound funds, according to officials.

The company‘s outbound strategy traces back to 2003, when it set up its Hong Kong branch, becoming the first South Korean asset management company to expand overseas. In 2005, it successfully launched the Mirae Asset Asia Pacific Star Fund, the first overseas fund product here.

On the back of its years-long overseas achievements, Mirae Asset earlier this year signed a contract to take over Global X, a US exchange traded fund operator, a deal expected to boost the Korean company into the world’s 18th largest ETF operator, according to research firm ETFGI.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)