Money manager BlackRock Inc will launch an asset management business in South Korea, the country’s financial watchdog says, becoming the 17th foreign fund manager in the $335 billion market, Reuters reports.
BlackRock, 49.8% owned by Merrill Lynch, comes just after Lazard Ltd, which got the nod to open local fund management operations last month, and joins the likes of Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, JPMorgan and ING Groep.
Two small-sized South Korean companies also won asset management licenses, bringing the number of asset managers in the country to 58, the Financial Supervisory Service says in a statement.
South Korea’s asset management industry has been growing at a double digit rate, buoyed by retail money inflows to stock funds and as pension funds and institutional investors diversify into higher-yielding investment assets.
Deregulation scheduled for February 2009 will allow fund houses to introduce and package funds based on various assets, from commodities to derivatives.
The full story is available at the Reuters web-site