[Interview] Choi Young-kwon, CEO of Woori Asset Management, "Leading the ESG Market with Active ETFs"

Targeting 6th Place in Public Fund Net Assets
Focusing on the Retirement Pension Market as Well

Choi Young-kwon, CEO of Woori Asset Management

[Asia Economy Reporter Minji Lee] "Our goal is to to become a leading ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) asset manager. Instead of a department store-style business strategy, we plan to continuously build an ETF lineup centered on ESG linked to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)."

Choi Young-kwon, CEO of Woori Asset Management, said this while expressing his intention to launch products that meet the ESG demands of various investors. CEO Choi stated, "We will create a new investment paradigm by establishing the industry's first ESG ETF product lineup," and added, "Based on this, we aim to rise to the 6th place in the industry by public fund net asset value, managing assets worth 14 to 15 trillion KRW." Currently, Woori Asset Management ranks 9th with a public fund net asset value of 12 trillion KRW.

The recently launched ‘WOORI AI ESG Active ETF’ can be seen as a vanguard to achieve this goal. CEO Choi said, "Unlike other ETFs, this product has the strength of being able to timely reflect ESG information such as factory fires," and added, "This year, we will continuously launch active ETFs that comply with ESG."

CEO Choi is regarded as an expert with deep experience in ESG investment. In 2018, while serving as CEO of Hi Asset Management, he was the first in the asset management industry to join the UN PRI (Principles for Responsible Investment, an international agreement encouraging consideration of ESG issues in investment decision-making). This contrasts with major domestic financial institutions that have only recently begun pursuing UN PRI signatories for ESG management. CEO Choi was also the second among domestic asset managers to introduce the Stewardship Code.

CEO Choi plans to make full use of the public fund division of Franklin Templeton Asset Management, which was acquired in the first half of last year. Through this acquisition, Woori Asset Management secured the priority sales rights for products of Franklin Templeton and Legg Mason (an affiliate) asset management for the next five years. He said, "We will first launch ‘Franklin Global Technology’ (3-year return of 160.88% as of the end of November last year) and ‘Legg Mason Brandywine Global Income Optimizer Fund’ (26.84%) in a fund of funds structure," and added, "In addition, we are preparing a variety of product lineups for investors seeking mid-risk, mid-return products with returns around 4-6%, such as climate-related global equity funds and global infrastructure funds."

CEO Choi also plans to focus on the retirement pension market. He established a Solution Management Division to expand the TDF (Target Date Fund) market following the implementation of the default option and to enter the OCIO (Outsourced Chief Investment Officer) market, where universities, foundations, and companies entrust funds to specialized institutions. This year, Woori Asset Management will showcase its asset allocation capabilities by launching a TRF (Target Return Fund). He emphasized, "We consider the TDF and OCIO markets as the last growth engines for asset managers and will actively respond," and added, "We are increasing contact with various companies and conducting related education to introduce Woori Asset Management’s asset allocation solutions."

◆ CEO Choi Young-kwon of Woori Asset Management = He graduated from Sogang University with a degree in Economics and earned a Ph.D. in Business Administration from Soongsil University. He joined Korea Investment Trust in 1988 and served as Head of Equity Management at Dongyang Asset Management in 1999. He later held positions as Head of Equity Management at CJ Asset Management, Head of Trust Department at Kookmin Bank, and Executive Director at Plus Asset Management. In 2014, he became CIO of the Government Employees Pension Fund. From 2017 to 2020, he served as CEO of Hi Asset Management, and in 2019, he moved to become CEO of Woori Asset Management.

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