Mirae Asset Tops Nomura in Market Value as Korea Brokerage Stocks Surge

Brokerage stocks are emerging as some of the biggest beneficiaries of South Korea’s stock-market boom. Average daily trading value on the country’s stock market topped 60 trillion won in May, setting up a run of record earnings for securities firms. Mirae Asset Securities, the industry leader by market value, has now overtaken Nomura Holdings, Asia’s best-known global investment bank, in market capitalization. The shift is being seen as a sign of the rising stature of South Korea’s brokerage industry.

According to the Korea Exchange, Mirae Asset Securities had a market capitalization of 44.4296 trillion won at the close on May 11, topping Nomura Holdings’ 3.8 trillion yen, or about 35 trillion won, by more than 9 trillion won. At the end of last year, Mirae Asset’s market value was only about one-third of Nomura’s.

This year’s Kospi rally and investor enthusiasm over Mirae Asset’s SpaceX stake have driven the stock up 240%, allowing it to surpass Nomura around February. The shares have kept climbing since then, widening the gap.

Mirae Asset’s move past Nomura symbolically highlights how far South Korean brokerages have come. When the firm acquired KDB Daewoo Securities in 2016, it set out to become a Korean version of Nomura. A decade later, a blistering stock-market rally and expectations tied to investments in global innovators such as SpaceX have pushed its valuation beyond that of its former role model.

Investors are watching Mirae Asset’s first-quarter results due on May 12 for what would be the industry’s first quarterly operating profit of 1 trillion won.

Other brokerages are climbing as well. According to the Korea Exchange, shares of major firms including Samsung Securities, up 79.3% this year, NH Investment & Securities, up 70.9%, Korea Investment Holdings, up 64.5%, and Kiwoom Securities, up 58.5%, have all surged. One industry official said brokerages, once treated as secondary businesses within financial holding companies, now carry enough weight to determine earnings and share-price direction.

A Decade After Chasing a Korean Version of Nomura, Mirae Asset Has Surpassed Its Role Model

Mirae Asset Overtakes Japan’s Nomura

When Mirae Asset Securities bought Daewoo Securities in 2016, Chairman Park Hyeon-joo chose Japan’s Nomura as its model. His goal was to move beyond the limits of the domestic market and build Mirae Asset into a firm that could stand alongside Asia’s leading global investment banks.

Ten years later, that ambition has become reality. Fueled by an extraordinary stock-market rally and growth in overseas operations, Mirae Asset Securities shares have more than tripled this year alone. The company is now Asia’s most valuable brokerage stock, with a market capitalization roughly 9 trillion won above Nomura’s. Shares of other brokerages, including Samsung Securities and NH Investment & Securities, have also soared as they ride the Kospi’s gains.

Mirae Asset Has Outperformed AI and Chip Stocks

According to Bloomberg and Korea Exchange data on May 11, Mirae Asset Securities had a market capitalization of 13 trillion won at the end of last year, just one-third of Nomura’s 38 trillion won. But from around February and March, the stock began surging as optimism over a potential initial public offering by SpaceX, in which Mirae Asset has invested, coincided with the broader market rally. On March 3, just after South Korea’s March 1 Independence Movement holiday, Mirae Asset’s market capitalization reached 37.8 trillion won, surpassing Nomura Holdings’ 37.4 trillion won. By the close on May 11, Mirae Asset stood at 44.4 trillion won and Nomura at 35.6 trillion won, a gap of nearly 9 trillion won.

Mirae Asset’s gain compares favorably even with the artificial intelligence and semiconductor names that have led the recent market rally. According to the Korea Exchange, the stock closed at 79,400 won on May 11, up 240% from the end of last year. That outpaced LS Electric at 230%, Hanmi Semiconductor at 214% and SK Hynix at 189%. Among major financial, brokerage and insurance stocks, Mirae Asset ranked fourth by market capitalization, ahead of Hana Financial Group and Woori Financial Group. On May 8, it also briefly surpassed Shinhan Financial Group on news that it would acquire an overseas brokerage.

The stock’s rise is being supported not just by the one-off possibility of a SpaceX initial public offering, but by earnings as well. Brokerage commissions and interest income from margin lending are soaring as trading value climbs in South Korea’s booming stock market. A shift in retirement pension money and growth at overseas subsidiaries have also lifted total assets under management above 600 trillion won. Epic AI, an AI-based investment information service, projects Mirae Asset’s consolidated first-quarter operating profit will exceed 1 trillion won for the first time in the industry. That would be more than triple the level a year earlier.

Brokerage Earnings Relay Begins

Mirae Asset is not alone. As of the close on May 11, shares of major brokerages including Samsung Securities, up 79.3%, NH Investment & Securities, up 70.9%, and Kiwoom Securities, up 58.5%, had all posted double-digit gains from the end of last year. Within financial holding groups, companies where brokerages play the central role have overwhelmingly outperformed. Korea Investment Holdings, the parent of Korea Investment & Securities, which ranked first in brokerage net profit last year, has risen 64.5% since the end of last year. That far outpaced gains of 15% for Woori Financial Group and 33.4% for Hana Financial Group, where banks are the main subsidiaries.

The industry expects the rally in brokerage shares to continue for now. Global investment banks have raised their Kospi targets as high as 10,000, bolstering expectations for another year of strong earnings at South Korea’s major brokerages. Samsung Securities said on May 11 that first-quarter operating profit rose to 609.5 billion won and net income climbed to 450.9 billion won. That was up 82.1% and 81.5%, respectively, from a year earlier. In retail, the company posted 19.7 trillion won of net inflows, lifting total client assets to 495.6 trillion won and underscoring solid growth in wealth management.

Shinhan Investment Corp. also posted first-quarter operating profit of 386.4 billion won, up 228.5% from a year earlier. Net income surged 167.4% to 288.4 billion won. NH Investment & Securities reported first-quarter net income of 475.7 billion won, up 128.5%. Net income at Kiwoom Securities, KB Securities and Hana Securities rose 102.6%, 92.8% and 37.1%, respectively, to 477.4 billion won, 350.2 billion won and 103.3 billion won.

Lee Sun-a / Oh Hyun-a, Korea Economic Daily reporter suna@hankyung.com