S.Korea's largest investment forum to begin Sept. 11

South Korea’s largest investment conference will be held in Seoul Sept. 11-15 with around 100 chief executives from global financial services firms and new growth engine industries like batteries, artificial intelligence, biopharmaceuticals, renewables, robotics and blockchain.

The forum, dubbed Korea Investment Week (KIW), will integrate The Korea Economic Daily’s six annual conferences on initial public offerings, stock investments, global markets, biotechs and blockchains. The integration is aimed at broader networking with industry experts and efficient operation of the event.

KB Securities, the conference organizer alongside Korea Exchange, will operate investor relations events for 120 companies at the five-day event.

The conference will have sessions for batteries, semiconductors, renewable energy, entertainment, bio and AI during the first two days.

On the morning of Sept. 11, POSCO Future M Co. President Kim Joon-hyung, LG Energy Solution Ltd. Chief Technology Officer Shin Young-joon, EcoPro Co. CEO Song Ho-joon and Kang Ki-suk, professor at materials science and engineering department of Seoul National University, will give speeches on the battery industry. Executives from SK Hynix Inc., Intel Korea and LG Display Co. will share their opinions on the chip and display markets.

In the afternoon of the day, CS Wind Corp. Chairman Kim Seong-kwon and Samsung Electronics Vice President Hwang Sang-joon will share their insights on clean energy and semiconductors, respectively. 

Rainbow Robotics CEO Lee Jung-ho will speak on the outlook of collaborative robots, and ABL Bio Inc. CEO Lee Sang-hoon and Lunit CEO Seo Bum-suk will respectively introduce new drug development and medical AI.

Executives from K-pop powerhouses, including HYBE Co. Chief Strategy Officer Lee Jae-sang, JYP Entertainment Corp. producer Sim Eun-ji and SM Entertainment Co. Chief Global Officer Choi Jung-min will share their views on Korea’s entertainment industry.

The conference will operate two tracks on the second and third days.

On Sept. 12, the track A sessions will have presentations from Celltrion Inc. board chairman Seo Jin-seok, HLB Co. Chairman Jin Yang-gon, SK Ecoplant Co. CEO Park Kyung-il, Doosan Robotics CEO Ryu Jung-hoon and IGAWorks Inc. CEO Ma Kuk-seong.

The track will also open special sessions on shareholder activism leaders, with the Korea Corporate Governance Improvement Fund (KCGI) CEO Kang Sung-boo, Tcha Partners CEO Tcha Jong-hyun and Align Partners CEO Lee Chang-hwan. Track B will introduce promising tech firms on batteries, education, cloud service and food aiming for IPOs.

The event will have global market conference and biotech industry forum on the third day.

Among the speakers for the global market forum, track A, are Strategas CEO Jason Trennert, Evercore ISI Chairman Ed Hyman, Goldman Sachs Chief Asia Pacific Equity Strategist Timothy Moe, former CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Eric Rosengren, New York Life Investment Management Chief Investment Officer Jae Yoon and S& Global’s global head of ESG market engagement Divya Mankikar.

Executives from Korean financial firms, including Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. ETF management head Kim Nam-ki and KB Securities Co. equity strategy head Lee Eun-taek will speak on local limited partners’ investment trends.

On track B of the third day, CEOs from Korean biotechs such as GI Innovation Inc., Kobiolabs Co. and Alteogen Inc. will introduce their pipelines and new drug development strategies.  

The conference on Sept. 14 will focus on digital assets, blockchain and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) with industry experts. Kim Yong-beom, CEO of Hashed Open Research and former vice minister at Ministry of Strategy and Finance, will start the day with a speech on the Asian digital asset market.

On the last day, Sept. 15, CEOs from fractional investment platforms like Musicow, Yeolmae and Company and Lucent Block.

The conference will be held at the Conrad Seoul hotel for the first three days and at Korea Exchange for the final two days.

Write to Jin-Hyoung Cho at u2@hankyung.com

Jihyun Kim edited this article.