Connecting Mongolia, China, Vietnam, Indonesia, India and Kazakhstan

Creating an Indonesian commodity fund in the first half-

“I will build a financial silk road which will connect Mongolia, China, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, and Kazakhstan with Vietnam as a base.”

Kim Nam-ku (44, picture), a representative director of Korea Investment Holdings Co., Ltd., displayed his strong will to extend its business abroad.

Mr. Kim made public his plan to invest abroad in an exclusive interview with Dong-A Ilbo at his office in Yeouido-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu, saying, “Our sales abroad were only four percent last year, but I will raise it to 12 percent by 2009 and 20 percent by 2013.” He brought out the “Vietnam fund” for the first time as a domestic financial corporation in June 2006, and added that he will put out the first “Indonesia raw material public fund” in Korea in the first half of the year.

Representative Kim, the first son of Kim Jae-cheol (72) of Dongwon Group, is the biggest shareholder (20.9 percent) of Korea Investment Holdings Co., Ltd., and vice-chairman of Korea Investment Co., Ltd., the biggest of its six affiliates.

Korea Investment Holdings Co., Ltd. has six affiliates such as Korea Investment Co., Ltd.(shares 100 percent)-a merged corporate of Dongwon Securities and former Korea Investment Co., Ltd., Korea Investment True Management (99.5 percent), Korea Value Asset Management (100 percent), Korea Investment Mutual Saving Bank (98 percent), Korea Investment Partners Co., Ltd. (100 percent) and Cornerstone Equity Partners (100 percent).

Establishing a securities firm jointly with the Vietnamese government-

Kim said, “I’m positively reviewing the establishment of joint securities that a Vietnamese government organization suggested early this year.”

That is because it is certain that the establishment of joint securities with the Vietnamese government which plans to make 550 companies privately-managed and list 100 companies would result in gaining an advantage in entering the Vietnamese market.

Some people point out that domestic financial companies’ investment in Vietnam is overheated. Regarding that, he has different ideas.

“A market capitalization of the Vietnamese stock market (the Ho Chi Minh stock market and the Hanoi stock market) was only 530 billion won at the end of 2005, but it grew to 15 trillion won late last year (195 listed companies). It is not overheated only if the speed of entering the market is controlled.”

Vietnam is not considered only as an investment object of domestic fund. He has a plan to do financial business, directly targeting the local people in Vietnam a year or two later if a local office is set up in May this year and the joint securities is established until the end of this year.

Kim emphasized “In Korea, where only four to five percent annual growth is available, only that amount of profits is expected. If you turn your eyes overseas, it is possible to make nine to ten percent of high profits a year, even though it is dangerous.”

He said that for that sake, he is designing a roadmap to develop a financial silk road with Vietnam as a base. It is advantageous for its advance that Mongolia and Vietnam are all pursuing a “Korean style of economical growth model.”

Becoming a financial firm specializing in investment-

An active advance to overseas is closely related to the introduction of a law to integrate capital markets which the government plans to execute in 2009. If the law is enforced, only financial corporations with investment skills and net worth of trillions won will survive.

Kim displayed his confidence, saying, “If we grow by 15 percent a year for seven years, we will be able to raise our net capital of 1.8 trillion won as of late last year to five trillion won without a capital increase.”

He said that Korea Investment Co., Ltd., a merged corporation of Dongwon Securities which focuses on investment bank (IB) tasks, and former Korea Investment Co., Ltd.,, which is strong in asset management (AM), is relatively having the upper hand.

“Excluding stocks of listed companies, investment financial products are provided mostly by IB tasks. The real estate project fund is an example. We are surpassing other rivals in terms of abilities to produce investment financial products and to sell them.”

Korea Investment Holdings Co., Ltd. expressed its will to actively engage in M&A as it laid emphasis on securities business and is not fully equipped to become a financial pillar.

“Our company is called a financial pillar, yet it doesn’t even have insurance and a bank. We have opened our door to all possibilities of M&A which is profitable.”

larosa@donga.com