(Yonhap Interview) U.S. investors consider Korean firms a positive investment: NYSE official

SEOUL, Nov. 13 (Yonhap) -- Many U.S. investors consider South Korean firms as a positive investment opportunity and will add them to their investment portfolio given the chance, a senior official of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) said, urging South Korean firms that wish to go public in the United States to do so at the right moment but reach out to the exchange operator as quickly as possible.

"I am impressed by the Korean ecosystem. I also talk to Korean investors, and these are global investors that are continuing to be excited and bullish about Korea," Cassandra Seier, the head of international capital markets at the NYSE, said in a recent interview with Yonhap News Agency.

"So they could be investors sitting in Silicon Valley. They could be investors sitting in New York, and they are continuing to look at Korea as a positive investment that they want to add to their portfolio," she added.

Seier oversees new listings from companies outside of the United States at the 233-year-old exchange. Her team was involved in the listing of Klarna Group Plc., a Swedish fintech group, and Groupo Aeromexico, the operator of Mexico's flag carrier, this year.

There are currently 10 Korean companies traded on the NYSE, including e-commerce giant Coupang Inc., with their combined market cap at the NYSE estimated at US$180 billion, according to Seier.

"Looking at the breadth and depth of the 10 companies right now, these are companies that are pretty much an industry leader in their own space. They are skilled," Seier said, noting Korean companies have done "quite high" in terms of their financial performances.

Many other South Korean firms are reportedly looking to list in the U.S. stock market, including Viva Republica Inc., the operator of financial app Toss. The decacorn startup is reportedly preparing to go public in the U.S. around the second quarter of next year.

Seier advised such firms to reach out quickly, even before they are actually ready to make an initial public offering (IPO), stressing that the New York exchange and her team may offer many tools to help "amplify" their story to global investors.

"Some foreign press come and do reporting from the trading floor. But in general, CNBC has a main stage, and we have NYSE TV, we have FinTech TV, we have Schwab network, Chatter News, etc.," said Seier. "There is a lot going on in our space."

"So a Korean company that wants to tell their equity story to the global investor stage should leverage the New York Stock Exchange early. I wouldn't wait ... for a few months before they are filing. They should actually be engaging us one to two years before IPO," she added.

The NYSE official expected the U.S. IPO market to be strong next year, citing what she called a slight backlog of companies that are waiting for the "right moment."

Already, there are 530 foreign-heritage companies from 48 countries listed on the 233-year-old NYSE.

When asked about her thoughts on ways to maintain the South Korean stock markets' ongoing momentum, the former investment banker emphasized the importance of building a trading environment that is resilient against market volatilities.

In the case of the NYSE, it uses a mix of state-of-the-art technologies and old-school human traders to prevent potential trading issues, she said. This has helped the U.S. exchange stay resilient during the stock market crash in early April, following the introduction of new tariffs by President Donald Trump.

"We saw over 1.1 trillion messages generated during those two days (April 7 and April 9). All our messages were processed in under 30 microseconds," she said.

Along with its trading system, the NYSE also assigns human traders, called "designated market makers," to each company. They act as an outsourced trading desk and provide extra oversight and accountability for that stock, she added.

"We think having a human being able to oversee (the market) makes a difference."

Seier touched on President Lee Jae Myung's visit to the NYSE in September, which took place on the sidelines of his first attendance at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

President Lee had hosted an investor relations session with major bank executives, including those from Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase & Co.

"His team made a really strong effort in inviting some of the largest industry Titans. And to stand there and see that they were all there to support President Lee and South Korea, I think that was a very unique moment," she said.

Looking ahead into next year, Seier said Asia will remain an important region for the NYSE, adding that she plans to kick off the year of 2026 "strong" in Asia, with scheduled trips to South Korea.

"I personally think it is a privilege to be able to help Korean companies tell their story at the New York Stock Exchange," she said.

fairydust@yna.co.kr
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