Woori Investment & Securities headquarters. Woori Investment & Securities
Woori Investment & Securities’ profit is surging, bringing synergy within Woori Financial Group into full swing. Observers say Woori Financial Group’s competitiveness will strengthen further once the effects of its large-scale capital increase begin to materialize.
According to financial industry sources on the 2nd, Woori Investment & Securities posted net operating revenue of 76.1 billion won in the second quarter of this year, a 2.3-fold increase from 33.3 billion won in the third quarter of 2024, its first quarter after launch. Non-interest income rose 4.6-fold from 9.2 billion won to 42.5 billion won, raising its share of total profit from 27.6% to 55.9%. Investment banking (IB)-related fees alone increased six-fold from 8 billion won to 48 billion won, giving the firm a brokerage-style earnings structure rather than that of a comprehensive financial company.
When Woori Investment & Securities was launched in August 2024 through the merger of Woori Investment Bank and Korea Foss Securities, few had predicted it would grow this quickly. Although Woori Financial acquired Korea Foss Securities, a fund-specialized brokerage, it had no foundation in the securities business at all, requiring it to build organization, systems, regulations, and risk management frameworks from scratch. Its main license for investment trading was delayed as well, so full-scale operations only became possible after March last year.
Despite the late start, the firm achieved rapid external growth on the back of synergy within Woori Financial Group. Last year, Woori Investment & Securities co-arranged large trillion-won-scale real estate and infrastructure deals, including acquisition financing for the Pangyo Techwin Tower, acquisition financing for SK Innovation’s power generation subsidiary, and the Daejang-Hongdae private metropolitan railway project. These resulted from close business cooperation with Woori Bank’s IB group to establish itself in the IB business market.
This year, the firm solely arranged large deals, including 120 billion won in funding for Ecopro’s Indonesian unit, 140 billion won in financing for DS Dansuk’s new Banpo headquarters, and 600 billion won in acquisition financing for Ulsan GPS and SK Multi Utility. It ranked sixth in the acquisition financing league table for the first half of this year (compiled by Seoul Economic Daily), entering the top 10.
In the retail sector, following the launch of its mobile trading system (MTS) in March last year, the firm began trading in domestic stocks and exchange-listed bonds, then expanded its base to retail bonds, customer repurchase agreements (RPs), and overseas stocks. The number of branch retail customers rose 18.2%, from 660,000 at the end of March last year to 780,000 at the end of June this year.
Woori Financial Group carried out a 1 trillion won rights offering for Woori Investment & Securities at the end of April this year. With total capital of 2.2 trillion won, Woori Investment & Securities now ranks among the top 11 brokerages in Korea. The group plans to pursue phased rights offerings in line with Woori Investment & Securities’ roadmap and performance, targeting comprehensive financial investment business status by 2030 and mega-IB status by 2034. “Woori Investment & Securities has entered a trajectory of external growth within two years,” a Woori Financial official said. “The next goal is to firmly establish itself as one pillar of the group’s non-banking portfolio.”