이 기사는 2019년 12월 05일 08:00 thebell 에 표출된 기사입니다.

NH Investment & Securities has won a leading role on the Hyundai Card initial public offering (IPO). The feat was a product of the South Korean brokerage house having fully leveraged its organizational strength.

Hyundai Card, the credit card arm of Hyundai Motor Group, announced last Wednesday that it has hired NH Investment & Securities and Citi Global Market Securities as joint bookrunners on its planned IPO. Korea Investment & Securities also joined to act as co-manager for the offering, which would likely value the card company as much as 2.5 trillion won ($2 billion).

Industry watchers pointed to a presentation competition as a key factor that determined the outcome. Representing NH Investments, Kim Joong-kon, head of the firm's ECM business, gave a presentation, according to sources. Kim, who started his career as a quant analyst before he moved to the firm’s ECM division in 2005, is known as a veteran banker with strong analytical skills.

The highlight was a Q&A session following the presentation, where NH Investments CEO Jeong Young-chae participated himself and answered most of the questions from officials from Hyundai Card. Such a case is considered rare because, though it is common that chief executives attend a presentation competition for large-scale deals in a display of moral support, they normally have less knowledge about details of an issuer or offering than staff at the working level. With Jeong’s active participation, NH Investment has successfully appealed to the card company, proving its strong interest in the deal.

Jeong holds a vice-like grip on advising card companies, as he took part in all three IPOs in the domestic credit card sector – KEB Card in 2001, LG Card in 2002 and Samsung Card in 2007. Among them, only Samsung Card remains listed until now.

Jeong, considered the Godfather of the country’s investment banking business, has more than 30-year experience in equity underwriting. Prior to serving his current position, he had led the ECM business of Daewoo Securities, currently Mirae Asset Daewoo after acquired by Mirae Asset Group, before moving to Woori Investment & Securities in 2005, which has been called NH Investment & Securities, its current name, since the merge with NH NongHyup Financial in 2014.

“Mr. Jeong reportedly covered most of the questions, as he himself experienced all three IPOs in the domestic credit card sector,” said an industry source. “Such an active participation seems to have been a plus.”

(By reporter Lee Kyung-ju)