NH Investment & Securities, the country’s second-largest securities firm by net assets, launched a hedge fund company as its own subsidiary, the company said Thursday.

NH Hedge Asset Management will be led by CEO Lee Dong-hoon, the former head of the hedge fund division at NH Investment & Securities.

In August 2016, the securities firm launched the hedge fund division and has operated the NH Absolute Return Fund worth 700 billion won ($603 million) and NH Pre-IPO Mezzanine Fund worth 60 billion won.

Since the establishment of the division, it has recorded a cumulative earning rate of 22.03 percent, while Seoul’s benchmark Kospi marked 9.23 percent return in the given period.

NH Hedge Asset Management will expand the operating size of NH Absolute Return Fund to receive investment funds from overseas institutional investors and family offices. To do so, the hedge fund will establish an investment fund in Singapore in the second half of next year.

To take a leap as a global hedge fund operator, NH Hedge Asset Management will tap into the hedge fund market both in and out Korea.

“In the medium and long term, we would like to grow as a giant hedge fund operator that can alternate other global hedge fund firms, such as where the National Pension Service entrusts its fund operation,” said NH Hedge Asset Management CEO Lee Dong-hoon.

By Jie Ye-eun (yeeun@heraldcorp.com)