Korea Investment & Securities to open IR session for investors

Korea Investment and Securities Co. Ltd will open a two-day investor relations conference in Seoul today in an effort to connect foreign asset management firms with Korean companies.

About 100 foreign asset managers and some major Korean companies, such as Korea Electric Power Corp., Hynix Semiconductor Inc. and LG Electronics Inc. will attend the "Korea Investment and Securities IR Conference 2006," said an organizer.

Korea Investment and Securities, the nation`s main securities brokerage, was reformed in 2005 through a merger between the then investment trust company and Dongwon Securities.

Korea Investment and Securities is currently one of the subsidiaries of Korea Investment Holdings Co., a leading securities investment-oriented holding company in Korea.

The other affiliates belonging to the holding company are Korea Investment Mutual Savings Bank, Korea Investment Partners Co., Korea Investment Trust Management Co. and Korea Value Asset Management Co.

The holding company said it aims to be included in Asia`s top 10 integrated financial services providers, with 20 trillion won in market cap and the return on equity of 20 percent.

The financial group has been on a fast growth track with its market cap quadrupling over a year, from 550 billion won in 2005 to nearly 2 trillion won as of now.

Over the same period, the foreign stake in the group jumped from 28 percent to 46 percent. The return on equity likewise increased from around 10 percent to 50 percent.

With its highly profitable brokerage sector as the cash cow, the company plans to expand other areas of business such as investment banking services and asset management.

In order for its subsidiaries to penetrate more revenue-generating sectors, Korea Investment Holdings is seeking to take necessary steps like increasing capital and training staff to meet global standards.

The company is actively hiring well-trained financial experts with global experiences, and it has also discarded idle properties to raise enough capital to further strengthen the equity trading part, which it is already good at in addition to maturing its futures trading and derivative products, according to company officials.

They added that the company is currently working to bolster its portfolio and risk management skills to realize the maximum profit returns to the groups` clients.

The opening of the IR session comes at a time when Korea is fast changing its financial landscape, with the general population preferring to switch from saving to investments. The nation`s central government is actively supporting facilitating a more advanced investment framework, and the market watchers say the local environment is steadily catching up with the more advanced models of the United States and Europe.

(jpark731@heraldm.com)