Samsung Securities Co., Ltd. is a South Korean financial services company headquartered in Seoul, South Korea, and a subsidiary of Samsung Group. It is one of the largest securities companies in Korea.[2]
On 19 October 1982, Hanil Investment & Finance was established.[1][3]
In 1988, the company was publicly listed on the Korea Exchange.[1]
In 1991, the company changed its name to Kookje Securities.[1]
In 1992, the company was incorporated into the Samsung Group and was rebranded to Samsung Securities.[1][3]
In 1996, the company attempted to set up a joint venture with J.P. Morgan & Co. to sell mutual funds in Korea but by 1997, the venture failed.[4] In 1998, the company was the first to sell mutual funds in Korea.[1]
In 2000, the company merged with Samsung Investment Trust.[1]
In 2014, the company's ownership of Samsung Asset Management was transferred to Samsung Life Insurance.[5]
In 2018, the company set up a team specializing in analysing investments related to North Korea, the first in the industry to do so according to a statement issued.[6][7]
The company has signed partnerships with various companies. These include Rothschild & Co (2008),[1][8] Neuberger Berman (2014),[9] KGI Securities (2016)[1][10] and Societe Generale (2018).[11]
The company has opened offices overseas. These include London (1996), New York (1998) and Hong Kong (2001).[1][12]
On 8 April 2018, an employee of Samsung Securities mistakenly distributed shares worth US$100 billion to employees.[13][14] The error happened when the company tried to pay a dividend to about 2,000 employees who participated in the company stock ownership plan.[13][14] The intent was to give each of those employees 1,000 South Korean won, worth about US$1, but instead issued 2.8 billion shares.[13][14] These shares were worth about 112.6 trillion won, or 30 times the market capitalization of the company.[13][14]
The error caused the price of the company's stock to drop by 11 percent within a day and to fluctuate after that.[13][14] By 7 May 2018, the company stated that it would file criminal lawsuits against employees who sold their shares during the fat finger incident.[13]
