Mirae Asset Global Investments is expected to launch more products in Vietnam, according to Stephen Chung, Hong Kong-based vice president for ETF sales.
“Fund managers have been hired. Product launches are also planned for this year, most likely in the second quarter,” he told FSA.
The plan comes after the Korean firm established a joint venture firm with Vietnam’s State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC) in 2018. At the time, Mirae Asset acquired a full stake in Tin Phat Management Fund and issued shares worth 30% of its total holdings to SCIC’s subsidiary SIC to form the JV.
Mirae Asset in Vietnam already manages at least one product, the Vietnam Growth Equity Fund, which was launched in July last year, according to the firm’s website.
Active or passive?
Chung did not elaborate whether the new funds in Vietnam will be ETFs or actively managed funds, however. But he explained that in other markets, the firm initially developed its active funds business before launching passive products.
For example, Mirae Asset initially launched active funds in Hong Kong before rolling out ETFs.
“We had active funds in Hong Kong, and the natural progression would be to develop the passive arm of the business,” he said, adding that the firm plans to employ the same strategy in India.
In India, the firm has at least 16 mutual fund products, two of which are ETFs, according to the firm’s website. In Hong Kong, the firm has six active funds and 11 ETFs, three of which were launched in January.
“But for Vietnam, I don’t think it is set in stone if we should launch active products first and then passive. It just so happens that we had more time in India and we first started with active products,” Chung said.
Vietnam’s ETF market remains small, with only two ETF products listed on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange, according to data from the local bourse.
Separately, Chung added the firm has plans to launch more products in Brazil.
Southeast Asia
Mirae Asset is also targeting investors in other Southeast Asian markets, particularly Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia, according to Chung.
However, the firm does not yet have plans of launching locally-domiciled products in those markets, Chung noted. Instead, the firm is exploring ways on how they can offer their globally-listed ETFs, Chung explained, adding that the firm is already in discussions with institutions and distributors in Southeast Asia.
“We are exploring ways to leverage our existing ETFs. We could offer our thematic ETFs listed in the US to investors outside of the market,” he said.
For example, New York-based Global X, which Mirae Asset acquired in 2018, has started to promote its products to Asia-based institutions and private banks last year, Jay Jacobs, Global X’s head of research and strategy, told FSA previously. After the acquisition, the firm’s ETF range in Hong Kong was also rebranded in November to have the “Global X” name. Previously, the ETFs carried the “Horizons” brand, which originally came from Mirae Asset’s Canadian business.
The firm has also expanded into Japan. Last year, the Korean firm partnered with Tokyo-based Daiwa Securities and Daiwa Asset Management to create a joint venture called Global X Japan.
The other ETF brands that Mirae Asset owns include Beta Shares in Australia, Horizons in Canada and Tiger ETFs in Korea.
As of September, Mirae Asset manages $135bn in global assets, $33.5bn of which are in ETFs, according to the firm. The US accounts for the largest share of the firm’s ETF business, followed by Canada and Korea.
Mirae Asset’s ETF business
| Market |
AUM ($bn) |
% share |
| US |
10.7 |
32% |
| Canada |
7.5 |
22% |
| Korea |
8.5 |
25% |
| Australia |
6 |
18% |
| Hong Kong |
0.4 |
1% |
| Colombia |
0.3 |
1% |
| Other (India, Brazil) |
0.06 |
0% |
| Total |
33.46 |
Source: Mirae Asset Global Investments. As of September 2019.
