[비즈한국] iM Securities001510 has nominated Park Tae-dong, a Senior Executive Vice President at IBK Securities and an external securities expert, as its next CEO. This change in leadership comes immediately after the firm successfully cleared its real estate project financing (PF) losses and turned a profit for the first time in three years. The market is paying close attention to why iM Securities, faced with the tasks of improving capital efficiency and diversifying its revenue structure, has decided to pivot to a "securities-focused" management regime.
The iM Securities Executive Recommendation Committee nominated Park Tae-dong as the final CEO candidate on February 27. Park will be officially appointed following the general shareholders' meeting and board meeting on March 25. His term will be for two years, running until the general shareholders' meeting in March 2028.
Born in 1969, candidate Park Tae-dong is an external recruit, not originating from DGB Financial Group or Daegu Bank. A French Literature graduate from Korea University, he is a seasoned securities expert who has held leadership roles in Trading and Sales & Trading (S&T) at Hana Bank, BNP Paribas, Meritz Securities, DS Investment & Securities, and IBK Securities.
The committee explained the reasoning for Park's nomination, stating, "He possesses extensive experience and knowledge gained from many years in the securities industry. We concluded that he is capable of establishing a stable revenue structure and driving business innovation based on his expertise and proven track record in both sales and general management."
The market is focusing on this transition as iM Securities welcomes a "securities man" as its new head. This is because Park's background stands in stark contrast to that of incumbent CEO Sung Moo-yong, and because Sung was widely expected to be reappointed after successfully improving the firm's performance during his tenure.
CEO Sung Moo-yong took office in March 2024, before the company rebranded from Hi Investment & Securities to iM Securities. Sung, who previously served as Head of Strategic Planning and Vice President of the Strategic Management Division at DGB Financial Group, and as Vice President of the Marketing and Sales Support divisions at Daegu Bank, had no prior experience in the securities industry. Despite this, he delivered results through efficient management, including improving performance and clearing losses related to real estate project financing (PF).
iM Securities posted losses in both 2023 and 2024. In 2023, operating profit was -8.5 billion KRW and net profit was -3.1 billion KRW, while in 2024, under CEO Sung, the figures were -224.1 billion KRW and -158.8 billion KRW, respectively. The widened deficit in 2024 was largely due to increased provisioning. As non-performing assets grew due to deteriorating profitability in real estate PF, the firm increased its PF loan loss provisions from 128.9 billion KRW in 2023 to 295.1 billion KRW in 2024 to ensure financial soundness.
Having laid the foundation for reform in his first year, CEO Sung announced in his 2025 New Year's address that he aimed to make iM Securities one of the top 10 firms in terms of capital efficiency and achieve sustainable growth. He stated that he would turn business divisions profitable through revitalized operations, increase low-risk income such as loan brokerage and arrangement, and improve Return on Equity (ROE) through asset allocation.
Indeed, iM Securities' performance swung to a profit. In 2025, it recorded an operating profit of 87.4 billion KRW and a net profit of 75.6 billion KRW. The retail division maintained profitability for four consecutive quarters. The contingent liability ratio in the real estate PF sector dropped by about 8 percentage points compared to the previous year, reaching 34%. Furthermore, the PF loan loss provision reversal in 2025 amounted to 5 billion KRW, which contributed to increased profit.
The firm's ROE, which had fallen from 2.45% in 2022 to -1.22% in 2023 and -16.12% in 2024, improved to 6.78% in 2025. ROE is a metric representing how much profit a company generates using its capital; a higher figure indicates better profitability relative to invested capital. While still lower than top-tier firms recording 10-18%, it marks a significant improvement over three years.
Although CEO Sung resolved the profitability issues and provisioning burden caused by non-performing real estate PF during his term, he was not reappointed and will pass the baton to Park Tae-dong. While Sung had set "maximizing capital efficiency and diversifying profitability" as the management strategy for 2026, these tasks now fall to the new CEO, Park.
iM Securities aims to continuously expand revenue sources that do not heavily rely on capital. In the retail division, the firm is splitting its organization into a Marketing Division and a Retail Sales Promotion Group to boost sales capabilities and maintain profitability. In the real estate PF sector, the company is focusing on normalizing existing projects while diversifying into business areas such as data centers and renewable energy. This provides insight into why the firm chose Park Tae-dong—an S&T expert who generates profit through bonds, foreign exchange, and commodities rather than IB or real estate PF—as its next leader.
While profitability has improved, market trust must also be restored. Yoon So-jung, a senior analyst at Korea Ratings, analyzed, "Performance in the IB division, which was a primary revenue driver, shrank due to the recognition of costs related to real estate PF, causing the market share based on operating net revenue to decline before recovering to 1.2% after 2025. Although profitability has been on a recovery trend since 2025, we need to monitor whether the firm can achieve structural profit generation after cleaning up its real estate PF bad debts."