Eugene Investment & Securities forecast Hecto Financial’s profitability will improve in the fourth quarter as growth continues in its core payments business. It also noted the company has posted double-digit revenue growth for eight consecutive quarters and highlighted the potential to expand new businesses such as stablecoin and AI agent payments.
On Nov. 10, Eugene Investment & Securities said in a report that Hecto Financial posted third-quarter consolidated revenue of 52.6 billion won and operating profit of 4.8 billion won. That was up 14.9 percent and 6.2 percent, respectively, from a year earlier.
Hecto Financial recorded double-digit revenue growth from a year earlier for eight consecutive quarters and achieved revenue in the 50 billion won range for four straight quarters.
Park Jong-sun (박종선), a researcher at Eugene Investment & Securities, cited growth in existing payments businesses such as simple cash payments and payment gateway services, as well as expanding revenue from its own membership-based services, as key factors behind improved results. He also said expanded new services such as cross-border settlements and mobile coupons, and the effect of bringing subsidiaries into the group, contributed to revenue growth.
Eugene Investment & Securities expects profitability to improve in the fourth quarter as the growth trend in the core payments business is maintained. It also assessed Hecto Financial’s push into stablecoin and AI agent payments as a medium- to long-term growth factor.
Hecto Financial joined Circle’s global payments network, the Circle Payment Network (CPN), earlier this year as the first partner in South Korea. More recently, it also joined the ecosystem of Open USD, a dollar-based stablecoin infrastructure line.
It is also seeking cooperation with t54 Labs, which has AI agent identity verification and transaction risk management technologies, and is working to build AI-based payments infrastructure.
Park said Hecto Financial’s share price may have room to turn to an uptrend when considering potential benefits from the future commercialization of stablecoins at home and abroad and expansion of the AI commerce market.
