Mirae Asset Mgmt. Bumped From Market Lead

Mirae Asset Management is no longer the leader in fund asset management due to its botched-up management of equity funds.

According to an industry news release yesterday, Mirae’s equity funds this month dwindled 7.47 trillion won (5.65 billion U.S. dollars) as of Friday to 37.65 trillion won (28.5 billion dollars).

Samsung Investments` assets, however, rose 14.75 trillion won this month (11.1 billion dollars) or 45.7 percent to reach 47.22 trillion won (35.7 billion dollars), regaining the top position for the first time since April last year.

The plummeting stock market dramatically cut Mirae`s net assets. Samsung, however, maintained a smaller portion of equity funds in its asset portfolio. In addition, investors flocked to money market funds, a short-term financial product, and this helped Samsung back to the top.

jarrett@donga.com