This article was posted on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove (MM) site at 8:53 a.m. on Nov. 13, 2025.
Hoban Group-affiliated Samsung Gold Exchange is expected to achieve a dramatic improvement in performance this year. Annual operating profit is estimated to exceed 50 billion won, which is about 10 times last year's operating profit.
Hoban Group's major affiliates are showing markedly mixed results this year. While the construction sector, the group's origin and core business, is struggling, the nonconstruction sectors, once considered "noncore," are supporting the group's overall performance. That is why its mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are being praised as brilliant.
◇ Gold exchange posts mid-30 billions won in operating profit through third quarter
According to the investment banking industry, Samsung Gold Exchange posted more than 2 trillion won in sales and mid-300 billion won-level operating profit in the first through third quarters this year. Annual operating profit is estimated to exceed 50 billion won.
This is a sharp growth compared with one to two years ago. Samsung Gold Exchange's sales last year were 1.7135 trillion won, and operating profit was only 5.2 billion won. In 2023, operating profit was about 30,000 won.
Samsung Gold Exchange engages in the distribution business of physical gold and precious metal products such as pure gold gold bars. Recently it has expanded into precious metal manufacturing and sales.
The gold distribution business has an extremely low profit margin relative to sales. The structure is to buy gold from smelting companies and sell it to general consumers in the form of gold bars to earn a spread. At this time the gold exchange sets the selling price by adding about a 1% margin to the international gold price, and when consumers later resell the gold the exchange buys it at a price lower than the market price.
In other words, the price difference between when consumers buy and when they sell, the so-called spread, is recorded as the gold exchange's revenue. Operating profit margins are only about 0.3%–0.6%, so the strategy is to maximize profit by selling large volumes at thin margins.
What boosted Samsung Gold Exchange's revenue this year was the accelerated rise in gold prices. Gold futures prices rose about 70% from the start of the year as of last month. As gold prices rose, the per-unit sales price increased, and sales of physical gold expanded the company's top line. Even if the margin rate remains constant, absolute margin per unit inevitably grows as gold prices rise.
Samsung Gold Exchange is the country's second-largest gold trading company after Korea Gold Exchange. Its parent company, in which Hoban Property holds a 50.82% stake, owns it, and the remaining stake is held by Hoban Construction (48.73%).
Samsung Gold Exchange was sold to Hoban Group in 2019 by Chairman Park Nae-chun.
◇ Taihan Cable & Solution stock up 119% this year
The group's flagship affiliate is Hoban Construction. It is the group's origin and central company with total assets of 7.8 trillion won (on a consolidation basis).
Industry sources expect Hoban Construction's performance this year to be weak. Even though sales and operating profit already fell 12% and 32%, respectively, from the previous year, some say they will decline further this year. The reasons are a slowdown in the construction market, an increase in unsold units, and rising costs among other complex negative factors. Hoban Construction recorded 122.1 billion won in operating profit last year on a standalone basis, and this year its operating profit could even lag behind Samsung Gold Exchange.
Taihan Cable & Solution, like Samsung Gold Exchange, is also posting strong results. Taihan Cable & Solution is a subsidiary in which Hoban Industry holds a 41.95% equity stake. Similarly, it is an affiliate acquired through M&A, which it has in common with Samsung Gold Exchange.
Taihan Cable & Solution posted cumulative sales of 2.6268 trillion won in the first through third quarters this year, marking an all-time high, and cumulative operating profit was 85.2 billion won. The surge in demand to expand power infrastructure in North America and Europe led to a sharp increase in orders for ultra-high-voltage power grids. At the end of the third quarter, the order backlog approached 3.4 trillion won. Thanks to this, Taihan Cable & Solution's stock price is up 119% from the start of the year.