Riding the 'Gold Price Rally' to Trillion-Won Quantum Jumps... Korea Gold Exchange and Samsung Gold Exchange Celebrate 'Record-Breaking Performances'

As international gold prices recently continue their steep upward trend, Korea Gold Exchange and Samsung Gold Exchange, which represent the domestic gold distribution market, have both achieved an 'earning surprise.' Although both companies have achieved remarkable external growth with sales surging three to four times in just two years, a look behind the scenes reveals distinctly different growth formulas—aggressive mergers and acquisitions (M&A) versus group-level financial support—drawing the industry's attention.

Korea Gold Exchange: Overwhelming No. 1 with '7.7 Trillion Won in Sales' Led by Successive M&As and Financial Techniques

The domestic No. 1 operator, Korea Gold Exchange (an affiliate of ITCEN Group), has shown incredible, explosive growth over the past two years. Sales, which were in the 1.8 trillion won range in 2023, jumped to 3.9196 trillion won in 2024, and recorded 7.744 trillion won in 2025, skyrocketing more than fourfold in a short period of time. Breaking away from its low-profit structure that remained at the 0.5 to 1% level in the past, its operating profit margin rose to 3.1% in 2025, leaving a massive operating profit of 239.9 billion won.

Behind this overwhelming growth is 'economies of scale' achieved through continuous M&As. Following the absorption and merger of the (former) Korea Gold Exchange in 2023, it consecutively absorbed and merged B2X Co., Ltd. in September 2025, forcefully boosting its market dominance. In addition, comprehensively acquiring the franchise business of its affiliate, Korea Gold Exchange Digital Asset, to integrate B2B and B2C channels and maximize distribution efficiency served as the foundation for its performance improvement.

Although it is pursuing 'leverage management' with a debt-to-equity ratio exceeding 200% due to aggressive mergers and purchase expansions, it is defending its non-operating profit and loss with advanced financial techniques that precisely hedge gold price fluctuation risks by actively utilizing derivatives such as currency futures. Driven by this growth potential, venture capital (VC) SUNP recently acquired the stakes held by SG PE and LX Investment, valuing 100% of Korea Gold Exchange's enterprise value at 155 billion won.

Samsung Gold Exchange: Rapid Growth to '3.6 Trillion Won' with Hoban Group's Strong Backing

The fierce pursuit of the No. 2 operator, Samsung Gold Exchange, is also formidable. Sales, which had stagnated in the low 1 trillion won range until 2023, achieved a quantum jump to 1.7135 trillion won in 2024 and 3.6596 trillion won in 2025, surging about 3.5 times in two years. Its unstable profitability, which included an operating deficit in 2022, underwent fundamental improvements and returned with record-high results of 40.7 billion won in net profit in 2025. This is interpreted as the result of focusing on proactive cost reductions, such as selling, general, and administrative (SG&A) expenses, and improving profitability, led by Lee Je-myung, who was newly appointed as the Head of the Business Management Team (CFO) in 2023.

Samsung Gold Exchange's rapid leap is thanks to the solid capital power of its parent company, Hoban Group. Under the full support of Hoban Property, which holds a 50.8% stake, and Hoban Construction, which holds 48.8%, Samsung Gold Exchange carried out a large-scale paid-in capital increase of 25 billion won in 2024. Furthermore, over the past 10 months, it has loaded ammunition for aggressive operations based on abundant liquidity, such as borrowing 80 billion won each from Hoban Property and Hoban Construction.

'Leverage vs. Stable Capital'... Diverging Financial Strategies

The two companies show contrasting approaches in terms of financial management and corporate governance. Korea Gold Exchange has ITCEN, an IT service specialized company, as its ultimate parent company and is integrating IT capabilities, but it has a structure with a high dependence on borrowings due to its M&A-centric expansion.

On the other hand, Samsung Gold Exchange focused on 'direct investment and internal strengthening' backed by construction and real estate capital. Based on large-scale paid-in capital increases and borrowing support, it is boasting solid financial health by keeping its debt-to-equity ratio low at the 60% level.

'Digital Transformation and B2C Expansion'... Round 2 of Competition Begins

Going forward, the competition between the two giants is expected to be determined by 'digital platforms' and 'B2C channel expansion.' Korea Gold Exchange has successfully established 'Geumbang Geumbang,' a mobile app-based peer-to-peer gold and silver trading service, and is even plotting entry into the global market based on the overseas network of its new investor, SUNP.

Samsung Gold Exchange is also accelerating the establishment of a 'digital gold trading platform' through digital transformation (DT) based on the massive funds it has raised. While launching various products aimed at small-scale investors, such as low-weight gold coins, it is aggressively expanding its offline B2C touchpoints by increasing the number of its agencies from 31 to 33 in the future.

Currently, while Korea Gold Exchange occupies an overwhelming advantage based on its market dominance, Samsung Gold Exchange is fiercely narrowing the gap with the leader based on the group's powerful capital strength. Moving forward, the competition for supremacy in the precious metals market between the two giants is expected to be decided depending on the outcomes of 'preempting digital platforms' and 'expanding B2C retail distribution networks.'