Strategic Alliance
Samsung Asset Management signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Edmond de Rothschild Group on April 19 for closer cooperation in South Korea and Europe. The two are to sell each other’s funds as the first project according to the agreement. Specifically, Samsung Asset Management is to release a European dividend fund in the near future. Rothschild and Samsung Asset Management London act as the portfolio consultant and manager of the fund, respectively.
In addition, Samsung Asset Management is going to release a European convertible bond fund as well, which invests in the funds operated in Europe by Rothschild. Rothschild, in the meantime, is planning to raise an Asian stock fund in Luxembourg in the second half of this year and entrust Samsung Asset Management with the management of it.
Samsung Asset Management is looking to learn from Rothschild via the agreement, too. Rothschild has been engaged in private banking for the super rich for over six decades and Samsung Asset Management is looking forward to being imparted with its portfolio organization know-how and financial product management expertise via its corporation in London.
The Rothschild Group and the Samsung Group formed their first partnership back in 2007, when Samsung Securities and Rothschild were the respective lead managers of the buyer and the seller during Fila Korea’s acquisition of the Fila headquarters in Italy. They formed a strategic alliance in the following year and have worked closely with each other since then, putting a number of cross-border deals through. Early last year, Samsung Securities invested dozens of billions of won in Rothschild’s M&A fund in Europe. Intercos, the largest cosmetics company in Italy, recently picked Samsung Securities as the lead manager for its IPO in South Korea, introduced by Rothschild.