"Yeouido Shinbaram"... Breaking Through Stock Market Slump, Everyone Achieves 'Record High Performance'

[Asia Economy Reporter Koh Hyung-kwang] Seoul's Yeouido, home to many securities firms, is buzzing with excitement. Despite last year's sluggish stock market due to the intensifying US-China trade war and global economic downturn, most major domestic securities firms posted record-breaking profits, contrary to expectations. This is analyzed as a result of diversifying revenue sources such as investment banking (IB) and proprietary investment (PI) by each securities firm.

According to the financial investment industry on the 8th, Korea Investment & Securities recorded a net profit of 709.9 billion won last year. Compared to the previous year's net profit of 499.3 billion won, this is a 42.2% increase, marking the highest annual performance ever recorded by a domestic securities firm. Sales and operating profit also increased by 27.2% and 34.3% respectively, reaching 10.22 trillion won and 865.3 billion won. A Korea Investment & Securities official explained, "The growth in performance was driven by increased profits in the IB and asset management (Trading) divisions."

Mirae Asset Daewoo, which announced its results earlier, also posted a record high net profit of 663.7 billion won last year, up 43.6% from the previous year, due to increased overseas business and IB profits. Sales and operating profit rose by 16.0% and 41.9% respectively compared to the previous year. The significant increase in performance was based on a broad overseas network, capital strength, and business strategies tailored to regional characteristics.

Meritz Securities once again set a new record for maximum performance in just one year. Last year's net profit was 554.6 billion won, a 27.9% increase from the previous year. This marks the fourth consecutive year of record-breaking performance since 2016. The focus on discovering new revenue sources such as domestic and international real estate, ships, aircraft, and overseas mergers and acquisitions (M&A) acquisition financing proved effective.

Samsung Securities also recorded a record high consolidated net profit of 391.8 billion won last year, up 17.3% from the previous year. This increase in profit was due to strong performance in proprietary capital management and the IB division. NH Investment & Securities achieved a record high net profit of 476.4 billion won last year, a 31.8% increase from the previous year. Additionally, KB Securities and Hana Financial Investment posted net profits of 290.1 billion won and 279.9 billion won respectively last year, increasing by 52.9% and 84.5% compared to the previous year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.