Uri PE Asset Management Returns to Profit After 4 Years... "Will Expand Group-Level Synergy"

2020 Fund Subscription Amount Reaches 1.7 Trillion KRW, Net Profit of 820 Million KRW Achieved

[Asia Economy Reporter Wondara] Woori Private Equity Asset Management (Woori PE Asset Management), a private equity management subsidiary of Woori Financial Group, has succeeded in turning a profit for the first time in four years.

Woori Financial Group announced on the 24th that Woori PE Asset Management turned profitable for the first time in four years since 2016, achieving a turnaround. In 2020, Woori PE Asset Management recorded fund commitments of 1.7 trillion KRW and a net profit of 820 million KRW. Previously, Woori PE Asset Management had delivered strong performance, such as liquidating the Woori Blacks Fund, established in 2009, with a high internal rate of return (IRR) of 13.2%, but its performance deteriorated after 2012 due to difficulties in raising new funds.

Woori Financial explained that the improvement in performance was the result of continuous efforts, including hiring an external CEO with a background in global investment banking, expanding investment areas into overseas real estate development and infrastructure projects, revising the performance fee system, and recruiting excellent fund managers. Woori PE Asset Management aims to raise a new private equity fund (PEF) worth 200 billion KRW and establish an innovation growth support fund worth 100 billion KRW this year.

A Woori Financial official said, "Chairman Sohn Tae-seung has ordered structural improvements such as expanding group-level synergies and diversifying business structures to strengthen the competitiveness of Woori PE Asset Management," adding, "Based on the more active collaboration channels among group companies since the transition to a holding company system, we will further activate synergy businesses and nurture Woori PE Asset Management as the leading private equity firm in the financial sector."