Mirae Asset Acquires Australia's No.1 Robo-Advisor Operator 'Stockspot'

Mirae Asset Global Investments announced on the 16th that it has acquired Stockspot, an Australian robo-advisor specialist firm. This is the first acquisition of an overseas robo-advisor specialist firm by a domestic financial group.

The acquisition price is approximately 28 million Australian dollars (about 24 billion KRW), with Mirae Asset Global Investments acquiring about 53% of Stockspot's shares. The remaining shares are planned to be additionally acquired through an option contract structure within a specified period.

Founded in Sydney, Australia in 2013, Stockspot is the number one robo-advisor specialist firm in Australia, managing assets of approximately 650 million Australian dollars (about 570 billion KRW) as of June.

A robo-advisor (RA) is a compound word of Robot and Advisor, referring to an asset management service where AI constructs and manages portfolios reflecting individual investment preferences through algorithms and big data analysis.

Based on its proprietary algorithm, Stockspot provides comprehensive services such as investment advisory and portfolio management to individual and institutional investors in the Australian market, and has a high brand recognition with a stable track record and 13,000 customers.

Mirae Asset Global Investments, which has been pursuing the acquisition of robo-advisor firms for several years, plans to make a full-scale entry into the financial market incorporating AI-based services through this acquisition of Stockspot.

The global financial market is already focusing on businesses utilizing AI-based industries such as robo-advisors. The world's largest asset manager BlackRock acquired FutureAdvisor in 2015, and Goldman Sachs acquired Honest Dollar, a U.S. retirement pension specialized robo-advisor, in 2016.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Mirae Asset's overseas expansion and the 17th year since entering the ETF market. Currently, it manages 287 trillion KRW across 14 regions worldwide including the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Hong Kong. Mirae Asset manages over 540 global ETFs worldwide. The total net assets amount to a staggering 130 trillion KRW as of the end of July, which is larger than the entire domestic ETF market (100 trillion KRW).

Following growth through overseas and ETF market expansion, Mirae Asset plans to lead the future financial market by actively introducing various products utilizing AI, a new growth engine, in global markets including the U.S. and Europe, as well as Australia, expanding its global network.

Mirae Asset Global Investments will also accelerate its entry into the Australian pension market by leveraging synergies among Stockspot, Mirae Asset Global Investments Australia, and its Australian ETF subsidiary Global X Australia.

Previously, Mirae Asset Global Investments has continued active investments in the Australian market, including purchasing the Four Seasons Hotel in Sydney in 2013. Australia has the fourth largest pension market in the world, following the U.S., the U.K., and the Netherlands.

Stockspot currently provides advisory services for SMSF (Self Managed Super Fund) accounts, which account for about 30% of the Australian pension market, and plans to introduce various advisory portfolios related to pensions in the future.

Hyun-Joo Park, Chairman of Mirae Asset Group Global Strategy Office (GSO), said, "With this acquisition as a turning point, we plan to actively target the AI and robo markets, which are future growth engines, not only in Australia but also in the global financial markets worldwide."

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