This article was published on Oct. 15, 2025, at 5:33 p.m. on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove site.
Meritz Securities has recruited six personnel dedicated to initial public offerings and is taking its first steps as an underwriting manager. Earlier this month, Meritz No. 1 SPAC, which had withdrawn its listing review, changed its largest shareholder and reapplied for preliminary listing review for a KOSDAQ listing. If it begins full-scale entry into the IPO market starting with this SPAC listing, it is expected to build out much of its traditional investment bank (IB) capabilities.
According to people in the IB industry, Meritz No. 1 SPAC resubmitted its preliminary listing review application for a KOSDAQ listing to the Korea Exchange on the 10th. It is reattempting after reorganizing soon after voluntarily withdrawing its listing review earlier this month.
An industry source said Meritz Securities, returning to the IPO market after 14 years, plans to start with SPAC (special purpose acquisition company) listings to gain experience rather than immediately taking on direct listing underwriting.
Meritz Securities had not handled IPO underwriting since it listed Korea Engineering Consultants Corporation (KECC), an engineering firm in the HHIC Holdings group, in 2011. In the case of SPACs, Meritz participated as a co-manager and founding shareholder in the Hidden Champion No. 1 SPAC, which Samsung Securities led as lead manager in 2010, but that SPAC failed to find a merger target and was delisted in 2013.
Meritz Securities has been recruiting dedicated personnel to resume underwriting work. In April it hired former KB Securities executive director Lee Kyung-soo as executive director in charge of ECM and formed ECM Team 1 under him.
ECM Team 1, which is in charge of IPOs at Meritz Securities, currently consists of six dedicated personnel. The team is led by Deputy Executive Director Lee Jae-sung, who worked at Samsung Securities and Yuanta Securities Korea. Joining Lee are Director General Lee Dong-gyu and Director Geum Dong-geun, who moved from Yuanta Securities Korea, and Director Gong Chang-in, assistant manager Yoon Dong-jun, and junior officer Do Sang-woo also joined ECM Team 1. Meritz Securities plans to expand its dedicated IPO staff to under 10 people within the year.
Meritz No. 1 SPAC changed its largest shareholder during the process of reapplying for the preliminary review. When NeoYoung, the previous largest shareholder, became disqualified, Meritz Securities reportedly asked Affirma Capital's CEO Kim Tae-yeop to participate as the new largest shareholder. Kim is said to have established a personal company called Green Noah and listed it as the largest shareholder.
If ECM Team 1 successfully completes the listing of Meritz No. 1 SPAC and lays the foundation for IPO underwriting, Meritz Securities will have secured much of the traditional IB structure it has been aiming for. Taking one step further by organizing a dedicated debt capital markets (DCM) team would bring Meritz Securities close to completing the core organizational structure of its IB institutional sector.