Shinyoung Asset, Baillie Gifford launch global growth stock fund

Shinyoung Asset Management Co. has joined hands with Baillie Gifford & Co., a UK investment management firm, to launch a long-term growth stock investment fund.

The South Korean asset manager said on Thursday the Shinyoung Baillie Gifford Global Growth Fund targets innovative companies around the world.

It is a fund of funds, or an indirect fund, which invests in Baillie Gifford’s flagship “Long Term Global Growth Fund.”

"In close partnership with Baillie Gifford, we’re going to identify growth companies around the world and invest in them while learning the UK investment firm’s investment knowhow,” said Huh Nam-kwon, chief executive of Shinyoung Asset Management, at a press conference held at the British Embassy in Seoul.

Founded in 1908, Baillie Gifford is known for long-term investment. It is headquartered in Edinburgh, Scotland and runs corporate offices in New York and London.

With 4.5 trillion won ($3.4 billion) in assets under management, the UK investment firm concentrates on 37 growth companies.

Companies with an investment period of more than five years account for 57% of its entire portfolio. It has invested in Amazon.com Inc. and Tesla Inc. for over 10 years and Nvidia Corp. for over seven years.

The UK fund has reaped a return of over 8,000% from its investment in Tesla, of which it is the second-largest shareholder. Its investment in Nvidia has returned a profit of 2,800%.

"Shinyoung's strategy is to invest in companies rather than the market, identifying undervalued companies and investing in them as long-term partners,” Huh said.

KEY INVESTMENT SECTORS

Baillie Gifford selects investment targets through research in collaboration with academia and research institutes.

Key investment sectors Baillie Gifford identifies as future growth drivers include e-commerce, healthcare, semiconductors, software, luxury goods, renewable energy and cloud computing.

“Early stage identification of good companies is the key to outstanding investment performance. We aim to provide our investors with excellent growth equity investment opportunities,” said Shinyoung Asset manager Kim Song-woo.

The Shinyoung Baillie Gifford Global Growth Fund is divided into hedged and unhedged products to mitigate foreign exchange rate risk.

From Sept. 21 investors can buy into the fund through brokerage houses in Korea, including Shinyoung Securities, KB Securities, Hana Securities, Yuanta Securities and IBK Securities.

Write to Eui-Myung Park at uimyung@hankyung.com

In-Soo Nam edited this article.