A multinational technology titan's $258-billion-AUM (as of December 31), 24-year-old asset management arm is betting on a $4.4-billion-plus-AUM (also as of December 31), seven-year-old, Midwestern fund firm, near Chicago.

Christian Magoon Amplify Investments LLC CEO

On March 31, Phillip Suh, CEO of Samsung Asset Management, and Christian Magoon, founder and CEO of Amplify Holding Company LLC (parent of Amplify Investments [profile], which sponsors the Amplify ETFs), confirmed that Seoul, South Korea-based Samsung AM's Samsung Asset Management U.S. Holdings, Inc. recently bought a 20-percent minority equity stake in Wheaton, Illinois-based Amplify. Amplify and Samsung AM will team up on marketing and product development, and the deal also gives Samsung AM exclusive distribution in Asia of Amplify's offerings.

Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. advised Amplify on the deal, pricing and terms of which have been publicly disclosed.

Magoon describes the "strategic business partnership" with Samsung AM as giving Amplify "exposure to the growing Asian ETF marketplace."

"Additionally, Amplify will receive significant funding and organizational support from Samsung to accelerate the growth of our business," Magoon states.

"We expect to be able to offer more innovative investment solutions in Korea as well as in the Asian region through close collaboration with Amplify," Suh states.

Samsung AM, a subsidiary of Samsung Life Insurance, has a Samsung Active Asset Management subsidiary and a Samsung Hedge Asset Management subsidiary. And the asset manager is no stranger to the U.S.: it has a 28-year-old institutional asset management subsidiary in New York City, and the Samsung AM-Amplify deal comes eight years after Samsung AM teamed up with a Big Apple asset manager on new products in South Korea. 

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