Daewoo Securities, a securities firm in South Korea, and Harcourt Investment Consulting have signed a partnership agreement to cooperate on the marketing and sales of various Harcourt fund of hedge funds products to South Korean investors.

The agreement will also provide hedge fund investment advisory services to specific investor groups such as pension and endowment funds.

At the signing ceremony Kee-young Im, the chief executive of Daewoo Securities, said: “Through this agreement Daewoo Securities not only places a cornerstone of a fund of hedge funds and hedge fund business platform to meet with the demand from institutional clients and private banking clients which are growing rapidly these days, but also obtains significant learning opportunities with regards to the core skills of the alternatives investment management business.”

Stephan Fritz, the chief executive of Harcourt Investment Consulting, said: “In recent years the South Korean investment funds business has grown tremendously in terms of the breadth, depth and volume of successful offerings, trends for alternative investment products and services are also extremely promising.

“Harcourt has significant experience in cooperating with strategic partners as a core strategy for growth in new markets. For over five years Harcourt has had a similar strategic partnership in Japan with Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management. I have no doubt that our partnership with Daewoo will be successful by combining Harcourt's hedge fund investment resources with the South Korean knowledge and network that Daewoo possesses.”

The partnership is an exclusive relationship for the South Korean market.