KB Securities' net profit for the first three quarters of this year surpassed 1 trillion won. With improved results in wealth management (WM) and sales and trading (S&T), its cumulative operating profit more than doubled from a year earlier.

KB Securities said on Wednesday its net profit for January to September totalled 1.07 trillion won, up 114.9 percent from 496.7 billion won a year earlier.

Operating profit for the period came to 1.43 trillion won, up 115.8 percent from 662.3 billion won a year earlier. Operating profit before provisions rose 82.6 percent to 1.47 trillion won.

By business line, WM operating profit totalled 1.49 trillion won, up 105.1 percent from a year earlier. The S&T division posted 595.1 billion won, up 77.9 percent.

In contrast, operating profit in the investment banking (IB) division fell 41.1 percent from a year earlier to 221.0 billion won.

Still, third-quarter results alone slowed from the previous quarter. Third-quarter net profit came to 271.2 billion won, down 39.5 percent from 448.5 billion won in the second quarter.

Third-quarter operating profit also fell 36.7 percent from the previous quarter to 379.1 billion won. Total operating profit came to 669.1 billion won, down 33.3 percent.

WM operating profit fell 45.1 percent from the previous quarter to 350.2 billion won, and S&T declined 35.7 percent to 160.9 billion won. IB, in contrast, rose 39.5 percent from the previous quarter to 89.3 billion won.

Client assets also rose from a year earlier. Total retail client assets stood at 263.9 trillion won at the end of the third quarter, up 28.6 percent from a year earlier. Of that, brokerage assets rose 46.9 percent to 183.6 trillion won, while WM assets totalled 80.3 trillion won.

Fund assets rose 127.8 percent from a year earlier to 12.5 trillion won, and equity-linked securities (ELS), derivative-linked securities (DLS) and brokerage ISAs totalled 7.8 trillion won, up 89.8 percent.

Its stock brokerage market share also expanded. KB Securities' share of the retail stock market for January to September stood at 7.1 percent, up 0.3 percentage point from 6.8 percent a year earlier. Its institutional stock market share rose 3.5 percentage points to 12.7 percent from 9.2 percent over the same period.

KB Securities' return on equity (ROE) for the first three quarters was tallied at 17.67 percent. Retail client assets under management (AUM) stood at 263.9 trillion won, and its institutional stock market share ranked first at 12.7 percent.