Kim Tae-woo, CEO of Hana Asset Management, has set his sights on a "second-stage leap" after completing the firm's first three-year growth plan two years ahead of schedule, following the company's separation from its joint venture with UBS. He aims to achieve full-scale quantitative and qualitative growth to seize dominance in the retirement pension market, which is expected to expand to 1,000 trillion won.
His confidence stems from results proven over the past two and a half years. Building on its track record of holding the No. 1 position in the physical money market fund (MMF) market for seven consecutive years, Hana Asset Management launched the 1Q Money Market Active exchange-traded fund (ETF), growing it into a "mega fund" worth 1 trillion won within 13 months of listing. The company has also strengthened its presence in the ETF market by successively scoring hits with original products unavailable elsewhere, such as "U.S. Space Aerospace Tech" and "Silver Active."
"From the time of our launch, we sought to simultaneously pursue three strategies: economies of scale, economies of scope, and innovative products," Kim said on the 3rd. "Our strategy of creating a 1 trillion won mega ETF, while also building out a basic lineup including S&P 500, Nasdaq, and bond mix products, and launching innovative products that other firms had not conceived of, has all paid off."
The core weapon for Hana Asset Management's second stage, after building up its fundamental strength, is the target date fund (TDF). A TDF is a product that adjusts the proportion of stocks and bonds according to the investor's life cycle, pursuing aggressive returns when young and more conservative returns as the investor ages. The "Hana The Next TDF," which features global diversified investment and differentiated currency hedging, swept the No. 1 return ranking across all six vintages from 2030 to 2055 within six months of its launch. Based on its overwhelming returns, it grew to around 400 billion won in assets under management in a short period.
Kim did not hold back his criticism of the recently fashionable trend among domestic asset managers of launching "TDF-type ETFs." He firmly believes that TDFs should serve as a steady "backbone" for long-term investment, not for real-time trading. "Retirement pensions are a private safety net that should enjoy the long-term compounding effect until retirement, so selling them as ETFs designed for short-term trading does not align with the philosophy of pension management," Kim said. "In the U.S. 401(k) pension system, TDFs account for about 38%, but among these, TDF ETFs account for only 0.0074%."
Differentiated products that cleverly exploit the 30% safe-asset regulation for retirement pension accounts are also leading the second-stage leap. A representative example is the "Hyundai-Kia Motors Bond Mix 50 ETF," scheduled for launch on the 9th of this month. Kim cited manufacturing-based "K Physical AI" as a megatrend to watch this year, drawing attention to the competitiveness of Hyundai Motor Group, which holds a stake in Boston Dynamics.
The ultimate goal of Hana Asset Management under Kim's leadership is to position itself as the "core product supplier" of Hana Financial Group, which aims to become the top name in the wealth management and retirement pension sectors. "With idea-driven ETFs that pierce through the market and orthodox TDFs that have proven overwhelming returns as our two pillars, we will quickly close the 10-year gap with the early movers," Kim said emphatically. "Based on outstanding product competitiveness, we will solidify our standing as a true 'house of distinction in retirement pensions.'"
