Mirae Asset Securities (006800.KS) Q1 2026: SpaceX Stake Drives Industry-First ₩1T Quarterly Profit, Up 288%
Korea's largest brokerage by equity delivers its first-ever trillion-won quarter — but unrealized fair-value gains on a single private-market position account for more than half the result, raising fundamental questions about earnings durability.
Source: Quarterly Report (58th Fiscal Year, Q1 ended March 31, 2026) — Filed with DART | Consolidated Financial Statements | Unit: ₩ billions
Mirae Asset Securities reported consolidated net income of ₩1.002 trillion for Q1 2026 (January–March), a 287.9% surge from ₩258.2 billion in Q1 2025 and the first trillion-won quarterly result recorded by any Korean brokerage in a single reporting period. Operating profit came in at ₩1.375 trillion, up 297.2% year-on-year — a figure equal to 72% of the company's entire FY2025 operating profit, compressed into three months. The driver was not an acceleration of fee income or net interest: financial instrument-related gains surged 429.3% to ₩1.548 trillion, and the proprietary investment (PI) and other segment delivered ₩788.7 billion in operating profit against a ₩22.1 billion loss in Q1 2025. Multiple Korean financial media — including the Korea Economic Daily, Seoul Economic Daily, Maeil Business News, and Korea Financial News — identified fair-value appreciation on Mirae Asset's stake in SpaceX, the U.S. private space company, as the central driver of this PI reversal. The quarter crystallizes how a ₩14 trillion equity base, the largest in the Korean brokerage industry, amplifies returns during a bull market and how structurally exposed those returns are to the direction of markets and private-asset valuations.
This report is based on Mirae Asset Securities' 58th Fiscal Year Q1 quarterly report (consolidated financial statements, as of March 31, 2026). Quarter-over-quarter comparisons reference Q1 of the 57th Fiscal Year; annual trend comparisons reference FY2025 (57th) and FY2024 (56th). Given the nature of securities businesses, conventional manufacturing metrics such as operating margin and debt-to-equity carry limited interpretive value; the analysis focuses on earnings composition, capital adequacy, and assets under management.
Balance Sheet
Assets — Positions Expanded ₩19.6 Trillion in a Single Quarter
| Item | FY2024 End (₩T) | FY2025 End (₩T) | Q1 2026 End (₩T) | QoQ Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cash and Cash Equivalents | 1.93 | 1.70 | 1.79 | +5.6% |
| FVPL Financial Assets | 55.23 | 67.31 | 77.36 | +14.9% |
| FVOCI Financial Assets | 17.58 | 14.02 | 14.04 | +0.1% |
| Amortized Cost Financial Assets | 55.13 | 61.53 | 70.76 | +15.0% |
| Investment Property | 3.68 | 1.80 | 1.85 | +2.7% |
| Intangible Assets | 0.76 | 0.74 | 0.75 | +1.3% |
| Total Assets | 137.18 | 150.28 | 169.87 | +13.0% |
Total assets expanded from ₩150.28 trillion at year-end 2025 to ₩169.87 trillion by March 31, 2026 — a ₩19.6 trillion increase in a single quarter. For a securities firm, assets are not production capacity in the manufacturing sense; they represent the aggregate of brokerage positions, trading books, and lending exposures at any given moment. The two drivers of the expansion were fair-value-through-profit-or-loss (FVPL) financial assets, which grew ₩10.05 trillion (+14.9%) to ₩77.36 trillion, and amortized cost financial assets, up ₩9.23 trillion (+15.0%) to ₩70.76 trillion — reflecting simultaneous expansion in trading and proprietary investment positions on one side, and repo and loan-type assets on the other. The key analytical implication is that it is the mark-to-market gains and losses generated within these positions, not the asset scale itself, that drives the income statement.
Investment property dropped sharply from ₩3.68 trillion at end-2024 to ₩1.80 trillion at end-2025 before stabilizing at ₩1.85 trillion in Q1 2026. This pattern points to a significant reclassification or disposal during the prior fiscal year; the quarterly report does not provide a detailed breakdown of this transition.
Liabilities — Wholesale Funding Expanded to Finance Larger Positions
| Item | FY2025 End (₩T) | Q1 2026 End (₩T) | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer Deposits (Investor Cash) | 17.89 | 21.76 | +21.7% |
| Borrowings (Repos, Call Money, etc.) | 77.10 | 83.02 | +7.7% |
| Bonds Issued | 9.76 | 11.16 | +14.4% |
| FVPL Financial Liabilities | 12.03 | 12.14 | +0.9% |
| Other Liabilities | 19.91 | 27.22 | +36.7% |
| Total Liabilities | 136.81 | 155.52 | +13.7% |
The liability expansion mirrors the asset build. Borrowings — primarily repo sales and call money — rose ₩5.92 trillion (+7.7%) to ₩83.02 trillion, while bonds issued grew ₩1.40 trillion (+14.4%) to ₩11.16 trillion, funding the enlarged trading and investment book. The more notable movement is in customer deposit liabilities, which climbed from ₩17.89 trillion to ₩21.76 trillion (+21.7%), reflecting an increase in investor cash held on account. These deposits represent brokerage custody balances rather than the firm's own funded debt, and their growth signals that retail trading activity and idle cash inflows were robust during Q1 — consistent with the recovery in domestic equity market turnover. Other liabilities swelled 36.7% to ₩27.22 trillion, a residual category that likely includes accrued performance bonuses tied to the quarter's exceptional profits.
Capital Structure — Retained Earnings Drive Equity Past ₩14 Trillion
Total equity reached ₩14.35 trillion (including non-controlling interests), up 6.5% from ₩13.48 trillion at year-end 2025. The dominant driver was the direct accumulation of retained earnings: the Q1 net income contribution pushed retained earnings from ₩6.719 trillion to ₩7.368 trillion (+9.7%). The capital adjustment deficit narrowed from negative ₩246.0 billion to negative ₩214.9 billion, a ₩31.1 billion improvement, while accumulated other comprehensive income rose from ₩571.9 billion to ₩671.8 billion as FVOCI fair-value gains flowed directly into equity. Paid-in capital — common stock of ₩4.123 trillion plus capital surplus of ₩2.168 trillion — was essentially unchanged, meaning the quarter's equity growth was entirely organic. A firm growing its equity base through retained earnings rather than repeated market access retains greater flexibility on future capital allocation decisions.
Income Statement
Core Metrics — A Quarter That Outpaced the Full Prior Year
| Item | Q1 FY2025 (₩T) | Q1 FY2026 (₩T) | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|
| Operating Revenue | 6.05 | 14.43 | +138.4% |
| Operating Profit | 0.35 | 1.38 | +297.2% |
| Net Income (Consolidated) | 0.26 | 1.00 | +287.9% |
| Net Income (Parent) | — | 0.996 | — |
In securities accounting, "operating revenue" aggregates interest income, fee income, fair-value gains, and disposal proceeds on a gross basis before netting associated costs. The absolute figure is therefore large relative to a manufacturing company's top line and less informative on its own; earnings composition — where the profit was actually made — is the more meaningful lens.
Operating revenue of ₩14.43 trillion produced operating profit of ₩1.375 trillion: revenue grew 138%, but profit expanded 297%, implying an operating leverage multiplier of roughly 2.1x. The underlying driver of this apparent leverage, however, is not a structural improvement in cost efficiency — it is the volatile and market-linked nature of the trading and proprietary investment gains. To appreciate the scale: the quarter's ₩1.375 trillion in operating profit represents 72% of full-year FY2025 operating profit, achieved in a single three-month window. Diluted earnings per share for the quarter came in at ₩1,701 on common shares, equivalent to 63% of the full-year FY2025 EPS of ₩2,680.
Revenue Decomposition — Trading and Investment Gains Overwhelm Core Fee Income
| Revenue Category (Consolidated) | Q1 FY2025 (₩B) | Q1 FY2026 (₩B) | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net Interest Income | 102.4 | 167.0 | +63.0% |
| Net Fee and Commission Income | 240.4 | 345.9 | +43.9% |
| Financial Instrument-Related Gains | 292.5 | 1,548.2 | +429.3% |
| Dividend Income | 105.8 | 116.3 | +9.9% |
| Other Income / (Loss) | (395.0) | (802.3) | deeper deficit |
| Operating Profit | 346.2 | 1,375.0 | +297.2% |
Of the ₩1.375 trillion in Q1 2026 operating profit, financial instrument-related gains alone account for ₩1.548 trillion — exceeding total operating profit in magnitude and demonstrating how much the other line items net against each other. These gains represent mark-to-market appreciation and realized proceeds from the trading book and proprietary investment portfolio, and their extraordinary scale this quarter reflects the sharp appreciation of held assets during a period of strength across domestic and international equity markets.
Net fee income of ₩345.9 billion grew a solid 43.9%, and net interest income of ₩167.0 billion advanced 63.0%, confirming that core business activity — brokerage commissions, wealth management fees, margin lending — improved meaningfully alongside the market environment. But the profit increment from these core businesses is dwarfed by the market-driven gains. Other income deepened to a negative ₩802.3 billion from negative ₩395.0 billion in the year-ago quarter. This line functions as a residual catch-all encompassing selling, general, and administrative expenses including personnel costs; its enlarged deficit is consistent with performance-related compensation rising in step with the exceptional profit, rather than any deterioration in underlying operations.
The central implication for earnings quality is this. Financial instrument-related gains contain a significant unrealized component. When market conditions reverse or private-asset valuations are revised, these gains can retrace at equal speed. The ₩1 trillion quarterly profit should not be treated as a run-rate figure.
Capital Adequacy and Liquidity
Cash flow statements for securities companies are heavily distorted by trading-asset movements, making free cash flow a near-meaningless metric in isolation. The Q1 quarterly report did not include the consolidated cash flow statement in a format amenable to extraction; capital adequacy and leverage ratios serve as the primary analytical framework instead.
| Metric | FY2024 | FY2025 | Q1 2026 | Regulatory Minimum |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Net Capital Ratio (NCR, Consolidated) | 2,857.8% | 3,433.5% | 3,524.2% | 100% |
| Asset-to-Liability Ratio (Consolidated) | 109.8% | 109.9% | 109.2% | — |
| Leverage Ratio (Parent-only) | 732.5% | 715.9% | 770.3% | — |
The net capital ratio of 3,524.2% sits at 35 times the regulatory floor of 100%, leaving no ambiguity about capital adequacy. Net operating capital stands at ₩12.032 trillion, with surplus capital of ₩4.755 trillion, providing substantial capacity to absorb additional risk positions or pursue opportunistic investments. The parent-only leverage ratio of 770.3% rose from 715.9% at year-end 2025, reflecting the deliberate expansion of funded trading positions during the quarter. This level is not atypical within the domestic brokerage industry, and the thick equity cushion provides a meaningful buffer against adverse market moves.
One technical note worth flagging: the FY2025 NCR was restated from 3,437.1% to 3,433.5% to reflect an accounting policy change associated with the introduction of the IMA (Integrated Management Account) product. The numerical impact is immaterial, but the change in measurement basis for the capital adequacy ratio is a relevant disclosure for any multi-period comparison of the metric.
Segment Results and Key Operating Metrics
Segment Operating Profit — A SpaceX-Shaped Earnings Profile
| Segment | Q1 FY2025 (₩B) | Q1 FY2026 (₩B) | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wealth Management (WM) | 210.6 | 502.8 | +138.7% |
| Investment Banking (IB) | 7.0 | 5.5 | -21.2% |
| Sales & Trading | 194.0 | 124.4 | -35.9% |
| PI and Other | (22.1) | 788.7 | swing to profit |
| Adjustments | (43.4) | (46.4) | — |
| Total Operating Profit | 346.2 | 1,375.0 | +297.2% |
The PI and Other segment contributed ₩788.7 billion of the ₩1.375 trillion total — 57% of all operating profit — against a year-ago loss of ₩22.1 billion. The mechanism behind this reversal is the fair-value appreciation of Mirae Asset's stake in SpaceX. According to multiple Korean media reports, the company recognized approximately ₩804 billion in investment asset fair-value gains during Q1, with SpaceX at the center. An initial investment of approximately ₩800 billion now carries an estimated book value of approximately ₩3.3 trillion, and the unrealized gains flowing through that position drove the PI segment's turnaround almost single-handedly.
The concentration of this quarter's result in a single private-market holding is the defining feature of the earnings report. Wealth Management delivered a solid ₩502.8 billion (+138.7%), supported by higher market-linked fee income and strong client asset flows — a demonstration of genuine core business momentum. Sales & Trading, however, fell to ₩124.4 billion (-35.9%), and Investment Banking produced just ₩5.5 billion, effectively breakeven. The quarter's narrative, stripped to its core: Wealth Management held up well, Investment Banking and Sales & Trading were weak, and SpaceX gains overwhelmed everything else.
Because the PI portfolio is marked to private-market valuations that shift with financing rounds and comparable transactions rather than real-time exchange prices, the gains it produces in a given quarter are subject to revision with a lag. A re-rating of SpaceX's enterprise value in either direction would feed directly into Mirae Asset's reported earnings. The company's extraordinary capital scale makes these swings disproportionately large in absolute terms — the same mechanism that produced ₩788.7 billion of profit this quarter can generate an equivalent loss.
Wealth Management — Customer Assets at ₩581.7 Trillion, Pension the Growth Engine
On a parent-company basis, client assets reached ₩581.7 trillion, comprising ₩357.6 trillion in discretionary brokerage assets and ₩224.0 trillion in financial product assets. On a consolidated group basis, total client assets approached approximately ₩660 trillion, growing roughly ₩58 trillion over the three-month period.
Pension assets are the WM segment's most strategically significant growth lever. Total pension assets stood at ₩64.3 trillion at the end of Q1 — up ₩6.5 trillion from the prior quarter — with retirement pension accounts at ₩42.4 trillion and individual pension products at ₩21.9 trillion. Pension mandates generate predictable, contractual fee income that is largely insulated from short-term market volatility, making this book the structural foundation beneath the more cyclical PI and trading revenue streams.
Overseas equity assets declined ₩4.5 trillion quarter-over-quarter to ₩47.5 trillion, attributable to a combination of exchange rate movements, international market fluctuations, and client profit-taking. The Q1 domestic equity brokerage market share was 8.9% by trading volume and 7.2% by revenue. For full-year FY2025, Mirae Asset ranked first in equity commission market share at 10.33%, ahead of KB Securities (10.29%) and NH Investment Securities (9.31%) — a positioning that reflects both the breadth of the retail client base and the effectiveness of the integrated WM platform.
Profitability Ratios — How to Read a 29% ROE
| Metric | FY2024 | FY2025 | Q1 2026 (Annualized) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Return on Equity (ROE) | 7.94% | 12.36% | 29.07% |
| Return on Assets (ROA) | 0.69% | 1.09% | 2.49% |
The reported annualized ROE of 29.07% requires careful interpretation. The figure annualizes Q1 net income to allow comparison against full-year FY2025 (12.36%) and FY2024 (7.94%). On a standalone quarterly basis, ROE was approximately 7% — parent-company net income of ₩996.2 billion divided by average equity of roughly ₩14 trillion. The annualization convention inflates the presentation, and the PI fair-value gains inflate the numerator further. Neither distortion reflects a durable change in the firm's earnings capacity.
The more informative trend is the structural improvement in annual ROE: from 7.94% in FY2024 to 12.36% in FY2025. This trajectory, if sustained, would reflect genuine improvements in core revenue productivity — growing fee income, wider net interest margins, and disciplined cost management. Whether that trend holds into FY2026 depends primarily on how much of Wealth Management's Q1 momentum proves durable and how the PI portfolio performs outside of the exceptional SpaceX cycle.
Global Network and the India Thesis
Mirae Asset Securities operates 19 overseas subsidiaries on a consolidated basis, the broadest international footprint in the Korean brokerage industry. The network is organized along geographic function: Hong Kong, U.S., and European entities concentrate on Sales & Trading and structured products, while India, Vietnam, and Indonesia focus on retail brokerage and Wealth Management — a matrix architecture that seeks to match product capability to local market opportunity.
During Q1, the Investment Banking segment generated revenue from a Seoul municipal youth housing financing mandate, a metropolitan-area data center deal, IPO underwriting for Deokyang Energen and Axvis, acquisition financing for Eco Marketing, and a rights offering for T'way Air. These were meaningful transactions across domestic capital markets, but the segment's ₩5.5 billion in operating profit demonstrates that deal economics remained thin. A single large infrastructure transaction or a significant equity capital markets mandate can materially shift IB contribution in any given quarter.
India represents the most visible long-duration growth bet in the international portfolio. The subsidiary operates under full retail brokerage licensing, with Wealth Management as its primary revenue model. Given India's structural demographic tailwinds and the underpenetration of financial services relative to GDP, the allocation is strategically defensible — though the timeline to material profit contribution from emerging-market operations is typically measured in years, not quarters.
Key Findings and Outlook
What drove growth. The ₩14 trillion equity base — built over years through retained earnings and capital market activity — provided the capacity to hold a concentrated position in a single high-conviction private asset. When SpaceX's implied valuation rose sharply, the scale of the position generated fair-value gains large enough to push consolidated net income past ₩1 trillion. Simultaneously, the broader bull market environment lifted Wealth Management fee income 138.7% and produced solid growth in net interest income and brokerage commissions. The combination of structural WM momentum and PI tail wind created a rare alignment that drove the historic result.
What constitutes risk. The PI portfolio's dominance of Q1 earnings creates a concentration risk that is the precise inverse of the upside story. A market correction, a change in the valuation methodology applied to SpaceX or other private holdings, or a delay in liquidity events — IPOs, secondary sales — would erode the fair-value gains that drove this quarter. Sales & Trading's 35.9% revenue decline and IB's effective breakeven performance, occurring simultaneously with a 288% profit surge, illustrate how divergent the underlying segment trajectories are once the PI contribution is stripped away. The ₩1 trillion headline warrants the understanding that it rests on a single private-market bet whose mark is determined by financing rounds and comparables rather than traded prices.
Near-term catalyst. SpaceX has been widely reported in Korean financial media as targeting an IPO in June 2026. If that listing proceeds on the reported timeline, Mirae Asset's stake would transition from a private-market mark to publicly traded equity, potentially crystallizing an additional estimated ₩1.3 trillion in fair-value gain and ultimately providing a path to realized proceeds. This event, if it materializes, represents the most significant single-quarter earnings catalyst the company faces in the near term. Conversely, a delayed or cancelled IPO would extend the unrealized position, prolong valuation uncertainty, and remove the most visible upside trigger for the second quarter.
Capital allocation. The surplus capital position — NCR at 3,524%, surplus capital of ₩4.755 trillion — affords Mirae Asset significant optionality. Retained earnings are accumulating rapidly, and the narrowing capital adjustment deficit improves the technical quality of the equity base. The quarterly report does not disclose a specific shareholder return program; the annual report is the appropriate venue to assess whether management is tilting capital allocation toward dividends or buybacks versus further international expansion, particularly in India. The tension between funding emerging-market growth and returning capital to shareholders is the medium-term capital allocation question the market will be tracking.
Securities firms are inherently pro-cyclical businesses, and Mirae Asset's Q1 2026 results exemplify this dynamic in concentrated form. The record profit reflects a favorable intersection of rising markets, a large proprietary investment position, and a single landmark private-asset holding — not a structural shift in the firm's underlying earnings trajectory. The structural story — whether WM fee income, pension asset accumulation, and net interest can sustain double-digit annual ROE over a full market cycle — is the more durable question. Q1 2026 answered it partially in the affirmative; the remainder of FY2026 will provide a more complete verdict.
This report is prepared for informational purposes only, based on Mirae Asset Securities' 58th Fiscal Year Q1 quarterly report (consolidated financial statements, as of March 31, 2026), as publicly filed with DART, and does not constitute investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any security. Figures relating to Mirae Asset's SpaceX investment — including initial investment cost, estimated current book value, potential additional fair-value gain from a prospective IPO, and IPO timeline — are sourced from Korean media reports including the Korea Economic Daily, Seoul Economic Daily, Maeil Business News, and Korea Financial News; they may differ from the company's official disclosures. Prepared: May 29, 2026.
