NH Investment & Securities rewrote its record for the biggest quarterly results in the second quarter this year, buoyed by increased transaction activity in Korea's stock market. Key institutional sectors, including brokerage (trade intermediation) revenue, investment banking (IB), and financial product sales, grew evenly, lifting earnings.
NH Investment & Securities said on the 23rd that on a consolidation basis for the second quarter this year, operating profit came to 681.2 billion won and net profit to 489.4 billion won. That was up 111.6% and 90.5%, respectively, from a year earlier. It surpassed the previous record in the first quarter this year (operating profit 636.7 billion won, net profit 475.7 billion won) to set another quarterly all-time high.
Cumulative operating profit for the first half was 1.3179 trillion won, and net profit was 965.2 billion won. It was also the highest ever on a half-year basis. First-half operating profit reached 92.7% of last year's full-year operating profit (1.4206 trillion won), and net profit reached 93.5% of last year's full-year net profit (1.0315 trillion won).
The improvement was supported by growth across all institutional sectors. In the second quarter, brokerage fee balance was 445.6 billion won, and domestic stock fee revenue was 390.9 billion won. Domestic stock market share also rose by 0.7 percentage points from the previous quarter.
Financial product sales fee revenue was 76.8 billion won, and IB institutional sector fee revenue was 108.3 billion won. Trading investment gains and related interest balance totaled 407.3 billion won, contributing to the improvement.
The customer base also expanded. Total client assets increased to 612 trillion won, while high-net-worth (HNW) clients with at least 100 million won numbered 455,000, and those with at least 1 billion won numbered 33,000. Those figures were up by 97,000 and 9,000, respectively, from the previous quarter.
Chief Executive Shin Jae-uk of NH Investment & Securities said, "What we focus on more than the record first-half results is the qualitative shift in the revenue structure," adding, "Not only brokerage but also financial product sales fees more than doubled from a year earlier, and our traditional strength in the IB business continues to firmly maintain leadership."
He added, "Going forward, based on the expertise of our co-CEO system, we will diversify a balanced portfolio that does not waver with market conditions and become the national flagship capital market partner trusted by both customers and shareholders."