Hunting Startups Overseas
Mirae Asset Daewoo Securities is going to invest 270 billion won (US$240 million) in its holding company Mirae Asset Capital to take over overseas startups.
According to the financial investment industry on March 22, the company plans to establish a “joint global unicorn private equity investment company.” The fund amounting to 270 billion won (US$240 million) will be managed by Mirae Asset Capital, which will continue to invest in global start-ups following last year’s investment in Chinese unicorn companies (unlisted start-ups with more than 1 billion won). An official from Mirae Asset Daewoo Securities said, “It is first time to invest in Mirae Asset Capital for getting potential profits through a principal investment (PI),” saying that the fund will reach maturity in five years.
The affiliates of the Mirae Asset Financial Group recently has expanded private equity (PE) businesses as the financial group chairman Park Hyun-joo asked the PE business to be the center of investment bank (IB) business and drive for an active investment. The Mirae Asset Financial Group is now planning to establish PE task-force teams in Mirae Asset management, Mirae Asset Daewoo Securities, Mirae Asset Capital and Mirae Asset Venture Investment in order to diversify investments.
In particular, Mirae Asset Daewoo Securities, which did not have a specialized team, has established IB3 headquarter to launch a PE team and hired Yu Sang-hyun, the former head of overseas alternative investment of National Pension Service, as director of the team. Mirae Asset Capital also has unified new growth fund businesses and expanded the IB team to establish the headquarters for investment in new technology and the headquarters for financial investment.
Mirae Asset Daewoo Securities, which has been newly organized, will focus on middle cap-sized deals to secure its competitiveness. The company is also reviewing joint investments, which will be carried out by raising project financing with small-sized PEs. The PE of Mirae Asset Management will focus on big-sized deals while that of Mirae Asset Venture Investment will concentrate on venture investment such as start-ups.
Mirae Asset Capital which owns new technology license is said to review small cap-sized investments such as overseas start-ups. Mirae Asset Capital launched a 100 billion won (US$90,000) worth new growth joint investment with Naver and 150 billion won (US$135,000) worth matching funds with Celltrion in 2016. And the company participated as institutional investor when Multi Asset Management invested in “Meituan-dianping,” the largest Chinese social commerce company. The investment is meaningful in terms that it was first time to invest in Chinese unicorn company even though the investment amount (13 billion won or US$11.7 million) was small.