Seoul-based investment company Rhinos Asset Management said on 4 June that it had opened a wholly-owned overseas subsidiary in Mongolia the day prior. This marks the first time that a foreign entity has begun to operate an asset manager in Mongolia.

The company was established in December last year and obtained a regulatory license in March, with capital of 526.9 million Mongolian tugrik (USD196,100).

Rhinos Asset Management Mongolia during the opening ceremony announced a corporate debt fund of USD 11 million to invest in debt issued by Mongolian financial technology startup AND Systems. The startup raised MNT 2.8 billion funding from Rhinos in November 2018. Rhinos created Mongolia’s first corporate debt fund in April.

Rhinos said in a statement that the new Mongolian unit aims to lay the groundwork for deal-sourcing capabilities in Mongolia, Russia and Central Asia.

Since 2017, Rhinos has sold Mongolian high-yield products such as funds investing in US dollar-denominated certificate of deposits issued by the Trade and Development Bank of Mongolia, as well as short-term bond funds and exchangeable bond funds.

Chief Executive Chun Myung-ho currently heads Rhinos Asset Management. Founded in 2014, the company has 7.1 billion won ($6 million) in capital as of end-March and invested in global mezzanine equities and derivatives with some 400 billion won in assets under management.