This article was published on Nov. 17, 2025, at 6:03 p.m. on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove site.
Mirae Asset Securities withdrew midway last month from the competition to underwrite Musinsa's IPO, which had been valued as a "10 trillion-won big fish," drawing attention to the reasons behind the move.
Chairwoman Park Hyun-joo of Mirae Asset and Chairman Cho Man-ho of Musinsa are known to be personally acquainted. Still, analysts say Park did not accept the company valuation Musinsa sought, which is why a listing underwriting contract was not reached.
According to the investment banking (IB) industry, Mirae Asset Securities did not attend the presentation (PT) during last month's selection process for Musinsa's IPO underwriter. Because it was a "big deal" with Musinsa seeking a company valuation as high as 10 trillion won, Vice Chairman Kim Mi-seop had planned to appear as the presenter, but the firm pulled out at the last minute.
Within the IB industry, many called the move an "inexplicable decision." Mirae Asset Securities had been widely seen as the leading candidate. Chief financial officer (CFO) Choi Young-joon of Musinsa previously worked at TMON and SSG.com, both of which had Mirae Asset Securities as their listing underwriter. For that reason, having faced CFO Choi twice before, Mirae Asset was considered highly likely to be selected as Musinsa's underwriter.
On the surface it appeared Vice Chairman Kim Mi-seop withdrew participation for strategic reasons, but sources say the final decision not to attend the PT was made by Chairwoman Park, not Vice Chairman Kim. A person in the IB industry said, "Chairwoman Park and Chairman Cho are personally close, and it is impossible for an executive to unilaterally decide not to do this deal in such circumstances."
People in the IB industry say Chairwoman Park judged Musinsa's hoped-for company valuation to be too high. Some say Park assessed Musinsa's appropriate company valuation at about 3 trillion to 4 trillion won.
Musinsa has maintained growth in transaction volume and operating profit, but even so, opinions within the IB industry differ on whether it can justify a company valuation of 10 trillion won. Calculating company value based on price-to-earnings ratio (PER) would require multiplying last year's net income (69.8 billion won) by as much as 143 to reach 10 trillion won. Therefore, most securities firms that participated in the PT are said to have applied the price-to-sales ratio (PSR).
An IB industry official said, "Chairwoman Park has long prided herself on knowing equity investing better than anyone, so she likely judged it difficult to accept Musinsa's 'asking price' as is."
Mirae Asset Securities, however, said the person who made the final decision to withdraw from the underwriting selection was the professional manager, Vice Chairman Kim Mi-seop. The official explained, "Because Chairwoman Park serves as global strategist (GSO), she makes direct decisions only on overseas investments like SpaceX, and leaves domestic investment decisions entirely to professional managers."
The official added, "Mirae Asset Capital and Mirae Asset Ventures are selling their Musinsa shares over the counter, so if Mirae Asset Securities were selected as the listing underwriter, a conflict of interest issue could arise, which is why we understand they did not attend the PT."