Translation to English

“TCK Investments, a global family office … M&A consulting”

Min-ho Lee for the bell
November 5, 2019

[Analysis of VVIP in the business of financial investing] TCK boasts its global network as one of its greatest advantages against its competitors. The firm has already secured a total of KRW800billion in investments from a small number of high net worth clients. 

[Editor’s Comments] As the market for asset management continues to grow, the competition to lure high net worth clientele is also heating up. In fact, it has been quite some time since the market has diversified to offer a wide range of services, from the more traditional investment services to offering advice on smart maneuvering of the legal landscape, succession planning, and even the education or marriage of the children of high net worth clients. Some individuals with ultra-deep pockets even go so far as to establish their own family office. We took a look at how financial services firms cater to the ultra-high net worth individuals, the so-called VVIP’s, how each firm differentiates from the others and where their respective strengths lie. 

TCK Investments (Topor & Co., Korea an investment advisory firm) is one of the few foreign-based investment services firm with a well-established position in the Korean market, with approximately eight years since opening its family office in Korea. Drawing on its global network of asset management professionals in the UK, US and Israel who are experienced in investments in a wide range of global assets, TCK Investments offer services to support global investments of ultra-high net worth clients based in Korea. 

During the early years following its establishment in 2012, the firm focused mostly on individual investors. But it has since expanded its client base with more than 30% of the funds entrusted now coming from corporate clients. The successful diversification of its client base is attributed to the firm’s efforts in funneling its capabilities to match Korean corporations with a desirable M&A target, as well as with specialists in each market. 

Strong relationships with global financial services firms allows TCK to position itself as a ‘one-stop shop’ that offers consulting to investment opportunities to match-making between potential buyers and targets in the global M&A market. 

TCK was co-founded by Ohad Topor CEO and CIO of TCK, and Howard Marks, founder of the famous Oaktree Capital, in 2012 based in London. Around the same time, Mr. Topor opened an office in the Gwanghwamun area of Seoul and launched the family office business catering to Korean clients. 

With no particular marketing activity and only through references from current clients, total assets under management and advisement have grown to more than KRW800billion. TCK manages clients as a group considering their clients may have several accounts. The number of client groups is around 20. The average size of assets per client group, even by a back-of-the-envelope calculation, amounts to over KRW30billion. TCK Investments is also well known to be very selective in their engagements, accepting only a handful of clients each year. 

TCK is unique from other family offices in Korea because TCK is a global firm and focuses on global investments. It means the firm has strengths in its global network. TCK has relationships with some of the biggest European and American investors in the world, alongside international banks and research organizations. It has dedicated people in London who conduct research that is relevant for global – including Korean – family clients. 

Utilizing these networks, TCK’s investment team identifies investment targets and also conducts extensive research as well as trading. The investment committee, which is chaired by Ohad Topor, meets regularly and makes investment decisions. TCK provides reports and commentary describing in detail the trends and insights in the global and local economy. If a corporate client in Korea is interested in an M&A deal in the global market, TCK offers match-making services with another corporate client overseas, taking into account the specific needs of each party. The firm also serves as a middleman in setting up meetings with companies or experts overseas who have a specific technology that the Korean client may take a particularly keen interest in. On the other hand, TCK does not offer services in advising on matters related to inheritance, gifting of assets or tax. This was a deliberate decision made by the firm’s management in order to focus only on asset management services that the firm knows they will be the best in. 

One of the strengths of TCK is that the firm is an independent family office which is not tied to a bank, brokerage or insurance company, and is therefore free from the burden of having to sell a particular product or achieve any sales targets. With a small but highly skilled pool of asset management professionals dedicated to each client group, TCK has a system in place that ensures a longer term perspective is applied to asset management. 

Mr. Topor noted, “The first goal and one of the most important goals of TCK Investments is to preserve the funds that the clients have entrusted to us. The second goal is to grow these assets over a longer horizon of 20 to 30 years. The highly skilled asset management professionals of TCK Investments can be compared to a conductor of an orchestra, in that they look at the bigger picture of the global market on an ongoing basis, to identify which asset group in which region looks the most promising for investment.” 

TCK Investment’s boasts some of the best professionals in the market who have previously worked at large global financial services firms. These individuals have a wealth of experience in private equity funds, venture capital and hedge funds. 

Topor & Co., Korea (TCK) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Topor & Co., Limited based in the UK. The unusual choice of TCK Investments, a global investment 

services firm, to open an office in Seoul links back to Chairman Topor’s time at Stanford University in the U.S. During his time at Stanford, Mr. Topor forged a close friendship with a number of Koreans, which led to a several visits to the country. It was during these visits that he spotted a huge growth potential in the market for asset management and estate management for high net worth individuals. During the early years following the firm’s establishment in 2012, TCK Investments focused on an extremely small number of ultra-high net worth individuals as their clients in Korea. But since then the client base has grown to include corporate clients who have entrusted TCK with more than 30% of the total assets under the firm’s management. 

As a firm that describes itself as a specialist in global asset management, TCK Investments is naturally lined up with some of the most experienced professionals in a number of fields in finance, including equity, fixed income, private equity funds, venture capital, hedge funds, as well as asset allocation, M&A and trading. 

Chairman Topor earned a bachelor’s degree in economics at Tel Aviv University in Israel, an MBA at Stanford University in the US. Following his studies, he worked as an asset management specialist at Square Capital, a family office services firm based on London and Paris. He has over two decades of experience in asset management catering to high net worth individuals. 

Minki Synn, Co-CEO of TCK majored in political science and economics at Princeton University in U.S.A., and has accumulated experience in corporate finance, M&A, private equity investments and portfolio management while working with the global asset management firms Kylin Management and Claritage Capital. Before joining TCK in 2013, he was in charge of running the fundamental stock long and short strategy in the global trading department of Korea Investment and Securities. 

Mark Tetto, a partner in TCK has become somewhat of a known name in Korea following his appearance on Korean TV. He has worked in the New York and London offices of global investment bank Morgan Stanley, specializing in corporate finance and M&A. He also served as one of the founding members of the Corporate M&A Team at Samsung Electronics. In addition, Howard Marks, co-founder of TCK and YK Hwang, former KOFIA Chairman take active part as senior advisors.