KB Securities
After performing strongly across all products, recording high income growth and enhancing its offering, KB Securities is Korea’s best investment bank this year.
The investment banking and asset management arm of Korea’s largest banking group, KB Securities secured roles on deals across the investment banking business during the awards period and saw commission income rise by 11.2% to W382 billion ($291 million) in 2022.
The firm ranked top of Bloomberg’s acquisition finance league table for 2022 and was involved in 24 transactions. Headline deals included a role as lead manager on Macquarie’s W1.2 trillion recap of LG CNS.
Debt is a particular strength. In the first three quarters of 2022, KB Securities was involved in 152 bond deals – including issues by Posco and Lotte Chemical – worth a total of W7.5 trillion. In equities in the same period, it advised on 24 transactions, worth W5.7 trillion in total, including the IPO of LG Energy Solutions.
It has also been improving its investment banking offering for the domestic market. In September 2022, KB launched a service allowing for fractional share trading of domestically listed stocks and what it has dubbed its ‘autopilot service’, an AI portfolio management programme to allow investors to trade at a lower cost.
It