Translation to English

Realizing Better Returns through the Differentiated “Endowment” Model

Giho Park for Korea Economic Daily
February 27, 2013

One global private investment office, with financial solutions different from ordinary domestic investment advisory firms, is making waves in the industry by word of mouth.

TCK has as its objective becoming a new role model to domestic investment advisory firms using endowment management techniques and asset allocation methods from the world’s top universities yet unfamiliar in Korea.

TCK was cofounded by Ohad Topor (right) and founder and chairman of one of the largest alternative investment asset management firms in the world, Oaktree Capital, Howard S. Marks (left). Oaktree is renowned for its main funds having made average annual returns of 19% over the past 22 years.

Mr. Ohad Topor has experience managing assets for London-and-Paris-based private investment office Square Capital and Mr. Topor’s family office in Israel.

The “endowment model” (that TCK specializes in) has contributed greatly to the stable management of the endowment funds of top universities worldwide for many decades in the past. In fact, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Pennsylvania, Stanford and Oxford Universities have managed almost 100 trillion KRW in assets using this method and have achieved around 12% in net returns over the past 20 years.

With the endowment model at its base, TCK provides steady asset management services to a small number of UHNW (qualified investors), corporations and some institutional investors. In particular, TCK’s principle is to provide investment opportunities not only in domestic equities, bonds and real estate, but also in the alternative investment asset class across the globe in diverse regions for those domestic investors with minimal overseas and alternative investment experience. TCK organically operates an office in the international financial center of London alongside their Seoul office.

By targeting a small number of elite clientele, TCK provides wealth management solutions most appropriate to clients’ expected returns, risk appetite and liquidity needs, and at the same time aim to avoid obsessing over short-term returns, minimize losses through risk management and realize consistent returns.

Director Nam Kyung Hee of TCK said, “TCK’s investment philosophy can be found in Howard Marks’ work The Most Important Thing, praised by investment gurus including Warren Buffett.”

Chairman Ohad Topor, who over the past 10 years has built extensive global investment experience in allocating to private equity, hedge funds, real estate, venture capital, equities and bonds, said “Through specialized and tailored wealth management we will promote long-term client relationships and focus on growing together with them.”

There is much attention on how TCK, which has introduced the asset management model proven effective by the endowments of the world’s top universities, will perform in the domestic investment advisory market.