Mirae Asset to acquire Japan's Sanko Securities for ¥5 billion, renewing its push into Japan

【Financial News, Tokyo = Correspondent Seo Hyejin】Mirae Asset Securities will acquire a Japanese securities firm for about ¥5 billion (about 42.6 billion won) and move to make inroads into the local stock market. The move marks the return of a major South Korean securities firm that previously withdrew from Japan. As foreign financial companies successively expand their local operations amid a boom in Japanese stocks, Mirae Asset Securities is expected to pursue proprietary stock trading and build a financial product sales network.

According to the Nikkei on the 29th, Mirae Asset Securities plans to acquire a 100% stake in Sanko Securities, a subsidiary of Japan's Okasan Securities Group. The two companies are expected to hold board meetings that day to approve the acquisition plan and officially announce it.
Mirae Asset Securities plans to acquire Sanko Securities through a U.S. intermediate holding company and aims to complete the transaction within fiscal 2026, which ends in March 2027. The acquisition price could be around ¥5 billion.
Sanko Securities is a securities firm that Okasan Securities Group made a wholly owned subsidiary in 2022. In May this year, it transferred its individual clients to an affiliated securities firm and focused on proprietary trading. For the fiscal year ended March 2026, its net profit was ¥48 million (about 400 million won), and its net assets were about ¥4.6 billion (about 39.2 billion won).
This will be Mirae Asset Securities' first entry into Japan's proprietary stock trading business. Proprietary trading is a business in which securities firms use their own funds to buy and sell stocks, bonds and other assets for profit. Because it requires substantial capital and risk-management capabilities, a growing number of securities firms in Japan have recently been scaling back such operations.
By contrast, Mirae Asset Securities, one of South Korea's largest securities firms by equity capital, earns about half of its total net operating revenue from proprietary trading in stocks and bonds and from market-making activities. The move is seen as a strategy to extend its proprietary trading capabilities, built up in South Korea, into the Japanese market.
Mirae Asset Securities is expected to retain Sanko Securities' existing proprietary trading specialists and expand the team. Through the acquisition, it will also take over Sanko's registration as a Type I Financial Instruments Business Operator in Japan, which allows it to conduct stock and bond trading and underwriting, among other activities.
The company also plans to expand its financial product sales network in Japan. It will discuss selling to Okasan Securities customers exchange-traded funds (ETFs) managed by Global X, a U.S. asset manager under the Mirae Asset Financial Group. There is also a possibility that the sales network will be extended to regional Japanese securities firms that use Okasan Securities' trading platform.

Mirae Asset Securities' return to Japan reflects the changed mood in the local financial market.
Japan was a market where foreign financial companies scaled back their operations amid prolonged low growth, ultra-low interest rates and tighter international financial regulations. The United Kingdom's Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) decided in 2014 to exit Japan's government bond business, while Barclays once withdrew from Japan's cash equities business. Daewoo Securities, one of Mirae Asset Securities' predecessor firms, also repeatedly entered and withdrew from the Japanese market.
But the recent boom in Japanese stocks and growing corporate demand for financing and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are changing the approach of foreign financial companies as well.
Switzerland's UBS resumed its role as lead manager for bond underwriting in Japan last July, after a four-year hiatus. Natixis Corporate & Investment Banking (CIB), part of France's BPCE Group, also announced this month that it would enter Japan's local M&A advisory market by acquiring an independent Japanese advisory firm.
While U.S. and European private equity funds (PEFs) and hedge funds had led the expansion of investment in Japan, foreign securities firms have recently joined them in expanding their businesses.
There is speculation that sales of Japanese small and midsize securities firms to foreign financial companies may increase, particularly as they face difficulties with management succession and an aging customer base. However, Japan's Financial Services Agency conducts reviews comparable to those for new registration when a major shareholder changes substantially, to prevent firms from entering indirectly by acquiring existing securities companies.
The boom in Japanese stocks and the restructuring of the financial industry are expected to spur even more foreign financial companies to enter the Japanese market.
[email protected] Seo Hyejin Reporter