Three Investment Points for Northeast Asia
MBK Partners chairman Kim Byung-ju recently joined an online forum of the Alternative Investments Society (AIS) of the London School of Economics and Political Science. There, he mentioned South Korea’s dynamism, China’s huge domestic market and Japan’s accumulated wealth and economic scale as Asia’s three investment points.
“Although China overtook Japan five to six years ago, Japan is still a large economy and its huge wealth is a reason to invest in it,” he said.
“When it comes to China, the middle-class population is expected to increase by no less than one billion within a decade," Kim said, adding, "MBK Partners’ trust in the market is solid in this regard."
This is why MBK Partners took over eHi in 2019 and CAR Inc. in March this year. Those are the second-largest and largest rent-a-car companies in China, respectively. According to Kim, more than 390 million driver’s licenses have been issued in China so far but the number of approved license plates stands at 200 million and this means the number of potential CAR Inc. customers amounts to 190 million.
“South Korea is the most connected country in the world and people pursue changes at all times there,” he went on to say, continuing, “MBK Partners has found investment opportunities in this huge dynamism of South Korea, where entrepreneurship is increasingly maturing.”
The forum continued for 90 minutes, covering differences between private investments in Asia and the West, why MBK Partners is focusing on Northeast Asia, the current status of South Korean unicorns, etc.
“As for the differences, I’m convinced that capitalism with a form unique to Asia needs to be further developed as mentioned by the late former Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew,” he said, adding, “The private investment in Asia is like transplanting a plant, that is, the investment needs to be made in view of different local conditions and environments.”