Korea Investment & Securities explores new products with global firms

Korea Investment & Securities Co. (KIS), a unit of Korea Investment Holdings Inc., is exploring new global investment products tailored for South Korean retail investors in collaboration with Man Group and AllianceBernstein.

Last week, KIS Chief Executive Kim Sung-hwan met separately with Gregory Bond, head of the Americas for Man Group and CEO of Man Numeric; and Onur Erzan, head of AllianceBernstein’s global client group and private wealth.

They discussed new product launches and investment strategies for 2025, while reviewing South Korean financial market conditions, KIS said in a statement.

The meetings took place as KIS seeks to scale up its asset management business by introducing innovative global investment products to become Asia’s No. 1 securities firm.

Korea Investment has launched the two global asset managers' flagship credit funds – Man Dynamic Income Fund and AllianceBernstein’s Global High Yield Fund – for domestic individual investors. They invest in credit funds mainly in the US and Europe.

The two financial products generate a stable income and distribute a portion of it to investors monthly. They are thus well-suited for investors seeking steady cash flow and principal preservation.

The total balance of global monthly payout funds KIS has sold has surged from 35.5 billion won at the beginning of last year to approximately 1.6 trillion won by year-end.

The Korea Investment MAN Dynamic Income Fund attracted more than 200 billion won in just three months following its launch in November.

In a further expansion of its offerings, KIS last week introduced a dollar-denominated monthly payout fund – the first of its kind in South Korea available for retail investors.

Pioneering the structured product market for Korean individual investors, KIS had offered public funds for collateralized loan obligation (CLO) investment since 2023 in partnership with The Carlyle Group, the largest CLO manager in North America.

CLOs are structured investment products typically backed by a pool of loans.

London-listed Man Group oversees assets worth approximately $180 billion. With a 200-year history, it specializes in credit-focused strategies and innovative multi-strategy investments.

AllianceBernstein, a US-based asset manager with a 40-year track record, manages $785 billion in assets.

Meanwhile, KIS has been releasing stock market reports twice a day under the title “Sleepless in USA” in collaboration with the US-based Stifel Financial. It has established a joint venture with the New York-listed financial services firm.

The market reports analyze selected US stocks and are the only ones of their kind in South Korea, released twice daily.

Write to Yeonhee Kim at yhkim@hankyung.com

Jennifer Nicholson-Breen edited this article.