BNK Financial Group disclosed on the 30th that first-quarter net profit on a consolidation basis was 211.4 billion won, up 26.9% from a year earlier.
Net profit in the banking segment totaled 175.6 billion won, up 20.6 billion won, or 13.3%, from a year earlier.
Busan Bank increased by 22.5 billion won (26.3%) from a year earlier, while Kyongnam Bank decreased by 1.9 billion won (-2.7%) from a year earlier.
Net profit in the nonbank segment came to 596 won, up 73.8% from a year earlier. Specifically, Capital rose by 10.7 billion won from a year earlier, while Investment Securities, Savings Bank, and Asset Management increased by 3.6 billion won, 1 billion won, and 7.5 billion won, respectively.
The group's ratio of substandard or below loans, an asset quality indicator, was 1.57% in the first quarter, up 0.15 percentage point (p) from the fourth quarter of last year. The arrears ratio also rose 0.28 percentage point from the previous quarter to 1.42% due to factors such as rising delinquencies amid an economic slowdown. The figures call for tighter risk management.
The common equity tier 1 capital ratio, an indicator of the group's capital adequacy, came in at 12.30%, up 0.05 percentage point from a year earlier on solid earnings and active risk-weighted asset (RWA) management.
BNK Financial Group's board resolved the same day to raise the quarterly cash dividend by 25% from a year earlier to 150 won per share to enhance shareholder value. It also decided to buy back and cancel 60 billion won worth of treasury shares in the first half of this year.
Park Sung-uk, executive vice president and CFO of BNK Financial Group, said, "We will do our best to enhance shareholder value by increasing the proportion of share repurchases and cancellations within a stable expansion of cash dividends so that we meet the requirements for separate taxation on dividend income for high-dividend companies."