South Korea’s mid-sized brokerage house Daishin Securities Co. has emerged as a new powerhouse in investment banking, with a number of major initial public offerings (IPO) in its pipeline.

Daishin Securities will be involved in this year’s mega IPO deals of LG Energy Solution Ltd., Hanwha General Chemical Co. and Kakao Pay Corp.

LG Energy Solution, the energy vehicle battery unit spun off from LG Chem Ltd. in December last year, is anticipated to become one of this year’s biggest stock debutants with offering of up to 15 trillion won ($13.6 billion). The IPO of Hanwha General Chemical is estimated at 4 trillion to 5 trillion won. Kakao Pay, a mobile payment affiliate of the country’s dominant chat app operator Kakao Corp., also eyes an offering of around 10 trillion won.

The pool of major corporate clients comes after reinforcement of IB business. Under the leadership of Oh Ik-geun, who was appointed to CEO in March 2020, the mid-sized securities firm has upgraded its IB business to cover a wider range of services including IPO and equity capital market. It scouted professionals from various backgrounds, ranging from research to accounting.

Although short, its track record has been stunning.

Earlier this month, Daishin Securities together with Mirae Asset Daewoo debuted Rainbow Robotics on the Kosdaq bourse with a retail subscription competition ratio of 1,201:1. The Kosdaq IPO of Finger Co. a financial software solution that Daishin Securities arranged last month showed a subscription competition ratio of 939:1.

Last year, Daishin Securities earned 249 billion won in operating income, more than doubled from a year earlier, after it pulled off a number of highly competitive IPOs in the second half.

By Park Chang-young and Cho Jeehyun

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