Translation to English

Rising Rates, Prices Make Dollar and US ETFs More Favorable

Hwa Shin for Maeil Business
December 12, 2021

  • Ohad Topor, Chairman of TCK Investments that offers investment advice to the ‘ultra-high-net-worth’

  • Concern about short-term shock to the Korean equity market

  • Lowest share of foreign investors in 10 years

“Recently, investors have shown a very cautious and reasonable investment behavior. It’s a harsh and smart market where companies with a disappointing performance immediately see their stock prices decline. This implies the importance of investing in a fundamentally strong company,” said Ohad Topor, Chairman of TCK Investments, on December 12th in an interview with Maeil Business Newspaper.                                         

TCK Investments is a Seoul and London-based private investment office that provides investment advisory and discretionary services to ultra-high-net-worth individuals, corporations, family offices, etc. With a minimum investment of 20 million dollars (or approximately 23.6 billion won), it’s currently managing about 800 billion won in Korea. TCK also entered the private asset management business in September this year under the name of ‘Topor & Co. Korea’.


“In times of high inflation and high interest rates like today, we prefer US equities most. The US stock market has gained significantly this year, hitting all-time highs 75 times, but overall it still has an upside of 6~10%,” explained the TCK Chairman.      

His advice for equity investors is to keep an eye on corporate pricing power. While major tech giants such as Netflix, Amazon, etc. are good examples, he suggests focusing on relatively undervalued mid-caps to look for opportunities.

Meanwhile, the investment guru expressed a short-term concern over the Korean equity market. “The share of foreign investors in the Korean market is around 29% now, the lowest since 2010.” Under the current conditions where it’s difficult to make money from equities, he recommended adding the US dollar and ETFs into a portfolio. “In case of an interest rate hike, the dollar would appreciate by 5% or more against all currencies. Some emerging countries that have been slow in debt management could even face a foreign exchange risk,” Topor warned.