Chairman Park Hyun-joo of Mirae Asset Daewoo. (Photo: Mirae Asset Daewoo)

Mirae Asset Daewoo posted record-high earnings of more than 600 billion won in 2019 thanks to an increase in profits from its overseas business and investment bank (IB) business.

Mirae Asset Daewoo announced in January that it posted 727.2 billion won in operating profit and 663.7 billion in net income on a consolidated basis in 2019.

The figures amount to year-on-year increases of 41.95 percent and 43.66 percent, respectively. During the same period, its revenue increased 16 percent to 15,456.1 billion won.

Its equity capital also soared based on strong earnings. Equity capital increased to 9,193.1 billion won from 8,352.4 billion won a year earlier. Its excellent overseas business performance and IB business growth contributed to the strong results of Mirae Asset Daewoo, financial market analysts say.

Mirae Asset Daewoo is expanding its business globally after Chairman Park Hyun-joo moved to Mirae Asset Daewoo Hong Kong in May 2018. Last year, the net profit of Mirae Asset Daewoo's overseas subsidiaries surpassed 100 billion won for the first time.

The IB Division’s profitability is on a steady rise. In particular, only the sum of commissions and corporate credit income exceeded 100 billion won for six consecutive quarters.

“We enjoyed the best business results ever with an increase in profits from our overseas and IB business,” a Mirae Asset Daewoo official said. “We will steadily put efforts into becoming a global top-tier company such as achieving 10 trillion won in equity capital.”

Meanwhile, Mirae Asset Daewoo announced on Jan. 21 that it ranked first in the defined contribution (DC) retirement plans and individual retirement pension (IRP) Systems in publicly disclosed one-year earning rates of retirement pensions among 42 companies.

Earning rates of Mirae Asset Daewoo's annual retirement pension plans hit 6.59 percent for defined contribution (DC) retirement pension, 5.66 percent for IRPs and 2.09 percent for defined benefits (DB) retirement pensions.

That of defined benefits (DB) retirement pensions surpassed 2 percent, higher than the industry average of 1.86 percent.

Mirae Asset Daewoo excelled at non-primary guaranteed product returns. The company recorded 10.35 percent for DC retirement plans and 9.53 percent for IRP, becoming the only company that realized nearly 10 percent earning rates in the two systems among retirement pension companies.

Mirae Asset Daewoo was able to claim first spot in returns as it provided various products for dividends based on its ability to supply differentiated pension products, financial market experts say.

Only Mirae Asset Daewoo runs Retirement Pension Lab among retirement pension service providers in Korea. The lab consisting of asset management specialists maintains stable and steady returns as it sets up global asset allocation portfolios and rebalances them on a regular basis.

As of the end of 2019, its balance is 960.5 billion won and the flagship Active40 has recored a cumulative return of 79.5 percent since its launch in February 2009, recording an annual average return of 5.5 percent.

In addition, the company focused on improving returns by expanding the proportion of products suitable for pensions, such as target date funds (TDF) which manage and control the proportion of investment assets according to customers’ life cycles.

“Mirae Asset Daewoo offers a variety of products to meet customer needs, continuously emphasizing the necessity of long-term investment in blue-chip assets in retirement pension asset management,” said Kim Ki-young, general manager of the Pension Solution Division at Mirae Asset Daewoo.

“We will beef up the management of pension customers' wealth more systematically through the Pension Asset Management Center and our sales branches all over the nation.”