Good morning. Thank you for your interest in the 19th Seoul International A&D Conference. 

First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to Jeong, Eun Bo, President of 

the Financial Supervisory Service, and Ahn Hyo Jun, Head of Fund Management 

Division, National Pension Service, for giving congratulatory remarks. I would also like to

thank Chris Wofford, Founder and Managing Partner of Wofford Advisors, 

for giving the keynote speech.

Some of you might remember Thomson, a French electronics company. 

Daewoo failed to acquire 20 years ago. When Daewoo took over Thompson, 

it stirred opposition in France. It seemed that the acquisition of a French company by 

a Korean company hurt their self-esteem since Korea was considered a developing country 

manufacturing cheap products at the time. 

How about now? Five years ago, Samsung Electronics acquired Harman, 

an American automotive electronics company. Next, Hyundai Motor Group acquired 

Boston Dynamics, a robot innovator, and SK acquired the NAND business from 

Intel last year. Now, nobody in other countries says that their self-esteem was 

their national pride due to how their companies have been acquired by a Korean company.

As seen in these cases, our economy and the status of Korean companies have 

remarkably improved. Now Korean companies more aggressively participate in 

cross-border M&A deals also showing unprecedented aggression in cross-border mergers 

and acquisitions (M&A) than other times in history. To look into these trends, 

the theme of this year's conference has been decided as 'Global M&A, a Stepping Stone 

for Sustainable Management.

Deloitte, a global consulting firm, also regarded cross-border M&A as a 

“springboard to growth.” Acquisitions of foreign companies have downsides, too. 

When a domestic company acquires a foreign company, they have to look into the 

country's tax policies, complex regulations, and political risks.

I look forward to a fruitful discussion at today's conference. Also, in this year’s conference, 

there will be an in-depth discussion on the role of the derivatives market before the global 

interest rates increase. Since the global economy faces new challenges after the crisis 

in Afghanistan, experts’ insights and knowledge will attract more attention. 

Ladies and gentlemen,

Historian Yuval Harari, who wrote the bestselling book Sapiens, said that what humans are 

different from other species is humans spend money. Indeed, Cross-border M&A and 

interest rate derivatives can also be viewed as strategies to think about how to use 

money more effectively. I hope you can find the solution here today.

COVID-19 is persistently tormenting us, but in the end, we will get through it. I wish you 

all good health. Thank you.

Jeon Seon Ik 

President & CEO, 

The Financial News