Subscribe
E-Paper
 |
| Mirae Asset Financial Group headquarters in Seoul / Courtesy of Mirae Asset |
By Anna J. Park
Mirae Asset Securities is expected to make handsome profits from its prior investments in Chinese vehicle-for-hire giant Didi Chuxing and Southeast Asian ride-hailing and food delivery service Grab, as both companies are expected to pursue initial public offerings (IPOs) in the U.S. in the coming months.
The Korea-headquartered brokerage firm invested around 300 billion won ($266 million) in Didi Chuxing back in 2018, when the corporate value of the vehicle-for-hire company was estimated at around $56 billion. While the Chinese firm recently filed for an IPO with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the firm's value is expected to reach as much as $100 billion due to the IPO, meaning that Mirae Asset may almost double its original investment.
Mirae Asset also invested $150 million in Grab, which also aims to go public through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) merger. When Mirae Asset Securities, together with Naver, made the pre-IPO investment in Grab, the Southeast Asian unicorn's corporate value was estimated at around $11 billion. Now the firm's value is hovering at around $35 billion, more than tripling Mirae Asset's profit.
The Korean brokerage firm also made a pre-IPO investment in drone manufacturer DJI, Indonesian e-commerce businesses Bukalapak and HappyFresh, and Indian online grocery delivery service BigBasket, among others. Mirae Asset also made around a $22 million profit through a pre-IPO investment in BioNTech, a German bio firm that went public on the Nasdaq last summer.
"Mirae Asset has been making active pre-IPO investments in global unicorn companies, particularly those having strengths in Fourth Industrial Revolution sectors such as the sharing economy and bio, as their growth rates are expected to accelerate further in the current global landscape," an official from Mirae Asset Securities said. "As some of the invested companies' IPOs are nearing, the firm expects to strengthen the virtuous cycle of investments and successful exits."
