Lee Tells Wall Street Heavyweights Korea Will Make Them Ask Why They Didn’t Invest Earlier

Chairs Korea Investment Summit in New York

BlackRock, Citi, PIMCO and Franklin Templeton CEOs Attend

US-Korea Shipbuilding Cooperation May Yield Tangible Results

President Lee Jae-myung said on September 23 in New York that South Korea’s stock market is emerging from what investors may once have viewed as chronic undervaluation.

Lee, who is in the US to attend the UN General Assembly, made the remarks at a Korea Investment Summit held at a hotel in Manhattan with global investors. He said his government is working to deliver further improvements and that those changes should bring the market much closer to what he called a normal valuation.

Attendees included BlackRock Chairman Larry Fink, Citigroup Chief Executive Officer Jane Fraser, Warburg Pincus Chairman Timothy Geithner, who served as US Treasury secretary under President Barack Obama, PIMCO Chief Executive Officer Emmanuel Roman and Franklin Templeton Chief Executive Officer Jenny Johnson. Senior executives from Lazard Asset Management and Goldman Sachs were also present. Brookfield Chief Executive Officer Bruce Flatt, whose firm is the largest shareholder in US nuclear power company Westinghouse, also attended. South Korean participants included Samsung Biologics Chief Executive Officer John Rim, SK Group Vice Chairman Yoo Jung-joon and Hyundai Motor Group President Sung Kim.

Lee said the US-South Korea alliance is evolving toward the future and forms the foundation for shared prosperity. He added that America’s core technologies, capital and broad market are combining with South Korea’s manufacturing and supply capabilities, linking the two countries’ advanced industries and supply chains more closely than ever.

Addressing shipbuilding cooperation, Lee said he discussed the issue with President Donald Trump on September 22, including cooperation in naval vessel construction. He added that he expects the talks to produce tangible results.

Lee said the situation looked similar to what he had described at the same event in September last year. He drew laughter from the audience when he added that, after enough time passes, people would be almost certain to look back and think, “Why didn’t I invest then?”

Lee will leave for Mexico City later on September 23 after wrapping up his three-day, two-night trip to New York. It will be the first state visit to Mexico by a South Korean president in 16 years.

New York=Han Jae-young, Hankyung.com reporter jyhan@hankyung.com