South Korean asset management companies saw their net profits rise 14.1 percent last year from a year earlier mainly on high returns from securities investments, the financial watchdog said Wednesday.

A total of 86 asset managers posted a combined 424.8 billion won ($387.5 million) in net income in 2014, compared with 372.4 billion won the previous year, according to the Financial Supervisory Service.

The top 10 asset managers' net profits accounted for 61 percent of the total, with 20 companies logging net losses during the period.

The strong bottom line stemmed from a surge in income from securites investments, rising to 40.6 billion won from 12.4 billion won a year earlier.

The asset managers' return on equity, a key gauge of profitability, stood at 11.5 percent as of the end of December, up 0.9 percentage point from a year ago. If a company has an ROE of 10 percent, it means it generated 100 million won in net profit by investing 1 billion won.

Mirae Asset Management Co. topped its rivals in the one-year period in performance with a net profit of 61.8 billion won, followed by KB Asset Management Co. with 49.6 billion won.

As of the end of December, total assets under management reached 685 trillion won, up 7 trillion won, or 9.1 percent from a year earlier, the FSS added. (Yonhap)