Future Asset Group Chairman Park Hyun-ju stated that he will soon announce a new merger and acquisition (M&A) plan and that the M&A being pursued in mainland China is likely to be completed within the year.
At a special lecture commemorating the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the Graduate School of Business held on the 27th at Seoul Kyung Hee University, Chairman Park said, "One more Future Asset M&A will be announced," adding, "First, if an agenda item is brought up, it must pass through the board of directors, and I make the final decision on M&As." However, he did not disclose specific target companies or countries. The industry expects this to be related to the acquisition of a Japanese securities firm that Future Asset has recently been pursuing.
Chairman Park also expressed his intention to place significant weight on market size in future M&A strategies. He stated, "We are trying to enter economies larger than Korea's, and future M&As will be directed toward larger markets," adding, "The places I most want to go are the United States and China, and there is a high possibility that the mainland China M&A will be nearly completed within the year."
Regarding acquisition targets, he explained that his interest lies in companies with competitiveness in new technology fields rather than simply those with large assets under management. Chairman Park emphasized, "I have no interest at all in companies that only have a lot of AUM; it is about companies that can do AI and robotics."
While taking a cautious stance on the recently raised theory that semiconductors have reached their peak, he highly evaluated the growth potential of the artificial intelligence (AI) industry.
Chairman Park diagnosed, "It may or may not be true that semiconductors are at their peak," but added, "Even if we say the AI revolution has come a long way, it seems to have only arrived about 10 to 20 percent."
Regarding the semiconductor supply structure, he predicted, "There will be four companies in total going forward that can manufacture memory and HBM," noting, "It is true that prices are rising due to insufficient supply, but there is a high possibility that demand will expand."
Chairman Park evaluated that the competitiveness of Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix in memory and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) plays an important role in the global AI industry. He also emphasized that Korea must secure leadership not only in semiconductors but also in advanced industries such as robotics.
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