Mirae Asset Acquires UK Financial Firm... Targets European ETF Market

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Seon-ae] Mirae Asset Securities is set to actively target the exchange-traded fund (ETF) market in Europe, following its expansions in the United States and Australia.

According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 21st, Mirae Asset Securities' London branch signed a stock purchase agreement (SPA) to acquire GHCO on the 6th. The acquisition amount is reported to be around 40 million USD (approximately 51.5 billion KRW). Once completed, GHCO will become a subsidiary of Mirae Asset Securities' London branch.

Founded in 2005, GHCO is a specialist company in local ETF market making. It has contracts with 18 ETF managers including BlackRock, Vanguard, DWS, and GlobalX, supplying liquidity worth 3 billion USD (about 3.9 trillion KRW) monthly across approximately 2,000 ETF products managed by these firms.

Market making refers to the practice of actively quoting buy and sell prices for securities with low trading volume to lead price formation and provide liquidity in the market. In Korea, securities firms perform this role.

Mirae Asset Securities acquired ETF managers GlobalX and ETF Securities in the US and Australia in 2017 and June of this year, respectively. A Mirae Asset Securities official stated, “We are awaiting approval from the UK financial authorities for the corporate merger review,” adding, “Our goal is to complete the acquisition by the first half of next year.”

Meanwhile, as of the end of October, Mirae Asset Group supplies 1,929 products across more than 40 countries and manages ETFs worth a total of 269 trillion KRW.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.