Korea's KB Securities to earn market's 1st quadruple crown

In a first for a Korean brokerage, KB Securities has led all major performance categories this year and could achieve the domestic sector's first "quadruple crown."

The company has led its peers in the debt capital and equity capital markets, mergers and acquisitions, and acquisition financing.

Bloomberg on Wednesday said that as of last month, KB was No. 1 in the domestic securities market in acquisition financing with 4.7 trillion won ($3.3 billion) by brokering the acquisitions of 21 companies, including the cafe chain A Twosome Place and Doosan Machine Tools.

According to Market Insight League Table, a media outlet run by The Korea Economic Daily, KB through the first three quarters led the sector in the categories of the debt capital and equity capital markets and M&As.

In the debt capital market, KB had 152 transactions worth 7.5 trillion won over the same period, extending its streak as market leader to 12 years that began in 2011. The company this year has also secured the issuance of a massive volume of blue-chip "AA" bonds like those of the steelmaker POSCO and Lotte Chemical.

In the equity capital market, KB had 24 transactions worth 5.7 trillion won in the first three quarters, beating its competitors in both performance and number of cases. The company supervised the listing of entities like LG Energy Solutions (IPO: 12.7 trillion won) and battery recycling company Sungeel Hitech (135 billion won).

In M&A management, KB was first among domestic securities companies and 11th overall nationally with three transactions worth 686.9 billion won, including the acquisition of the environmental business of KT Eco Technology Services.

Since last month, a sluggish financial market plagued by surging interest rates and the Legoland crisis has greatly hampered bond and stock issuance. Yet KB is highly expected to win this unprecedented quadruple crown.

KB Securities CEO Kim Seong-hyun said, "By boosting the operations of corporations and using private equity funds to expand the network, we could raise our competitiveness beyond the equity capital and debt capital markets to M&A advisory and acquisition financing," adding, "We will achieve a quadruple crown by concluding more M&As in the year's second half and maintaining performance in the equity capital and debut capital markets."

Write to Ye-Jin Jun at ace@hankyung.com