Asia Times: Record net profits for brokerages



	October 30, 1999	atimes.com

The Koreas

Record net profits for brokerages

SEOUL - South Korea's securities firms are forecast to have no liquidity problems, even if the bonds of Daewoo Group affiliates default, after earning a pre-tax net profit of 4.2 trillion won ($3.5 billion) in the first half of fiscal 1999 between April and September.

The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) said Friday that 32 domestic securities firms recorded the largest-ever profit in the first half, due to a rally on the stock market.

Hyundai Securities was the most profitable with a surplus of 561.8 billion won, followed by LG Securities with 465.9 billion won, Samsung Securities with 400.9 billion won, and Hyundai Investment Trust and Securities with 384.6 billion won.

Daishin Securities earned 302.2 billion won, Daewoo Securities 253.6 billion won, and Dongwon Securities 253.5 billion won.

Revenue from deposit commissions surged by 33.36 trillion won and those from commissions on depositary certificates rose by 1.76 trillion won from the same period last year.

Sales and appraisal profits reached 901.5 billion won, a turnaround from last year's loss of 736.5 billion won. The FSS said first-half profits did not reflect losses from Daewoo bonds, but observed that brokerage houses were fully capable of handling such losses.

The assets of local brokerage houses totaled 49.69 trillion won and their net worth was 14.16 trillion won as of September, up by 100.3 percent and 166.6 percent, respectively, from a year earlier.

Twenty-two local operations of foreign brokerage houses raked in net profits of 344.6 billion won in the same period, up 288.6 billion won from a year earlier.

Merrill Lynch recorded a net profit of 59.3 billion won, Morgan Stanley 33.3 billion won, and Jardine Fleming 29.3 billion won.

(Asia Pulse/Yonhap)

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