Meritz Securities Achieves Over 100 Billion KRW Net Profit for 14 Consecutive Quarters

[Asia Economy Reporter Ji Yeon-jin] Meritz Securities (CEO Choi Hee-moon) announced on the 29th that its consolidated net profit for the second quarter of this year reached 190.3 billion KRW, a 22.2% increase compared to the same period last year. This marks the 14th consecutive quarter since the first quarter of 2018 with net profits exceeding 100 billion KRW, making it the second highest quarterly net profit ever, following the first quarter of this year.

Operating profit and pre-tax profit for the second quarter were 239.8 billion KRW and 261.7 billion KRW, respectively, up 8.1% and 22.4% from a year earlier. In the second quarter, the company successfully completed the largest project financing (PF) in the domestic securities industry, the Magok MICE Complex PF, achieving excellent operating income in the corporate finance (IB) sector.

For the first half of this year, operating profit and net profit were 524.5 billion KRW and 402.0 billion KRW, respectively, representing increases of 43.1% and 55.8% compared to last year. Despite the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and uncertain financial market conditions, the company achieved outstanding results by building a stable profit portfolio. The consolidated annualized return on equity (ROE) recorded 16.4%, up 4.1 percentage points from the second quarter of last year.

Meanwhile, the net capital ratio (NCR), an indicator of financial soundness, improved by 112 percentage points to 1501% as of the end of June 2021 compared to the end of June last year. The operating net capital ratio (formerly NCR), a measure used by credit rating agencies to assess capital adequacy, rose 8 percentage points to 196% compared to 188% at the end of June 2020.

A Meritz Securities official stated, “Despite the challenging financial market environment caused by the resurgence of COVID-19 in the first half, we recorded excellent performance across all business sectors including corporate finance (IB) and asset management (Sales & Trading).” He added, “In the second half, we will establish a stable growth foundation by creating differentiated profit opportunities through more agile and flexible responses to intensifying competition and changes.”