BNK Financial Group Reports First Half Net Profit of 411.8 Billion Won, Down 13.5% Year-on-Year

Impact of 'real estate fund' one-off factors

Non-banking sectors such as securities and asset management drive performance

Treasury shares worth 60 billion won to be canceled within the third quarter

BNK Financial Group announced on July 28 that its consolidated net profit for the first half of this year was 411.8 billion won. This represents a decrease of 64 billion won, or 13.5%, compared to the same period last year, when net profit was 475.8 billion won.

The company explained that while recurring income improved due to an increase in adjusted operating profit and a decrease in provisioning expenses, net profit declined mainly because of two independent factors: the base effect from the liquidation profit (54.4 billion won) of the BNK Gangnam Core Office Fund reflected in the first half of last year, and a settlement loss (44 billion won) resulting from the acquisition of external shares in the Yeouido Core Office Fund this year.

Seongwook Park, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of BNK Financial Group, stated, "If we compare recurring net profit excluding one-off factors related to real estate funds, the first half net profit is 455.8 billion won, up 34.4 billion won (+8.2%) from the first half of last year, indicating steady improvement in our core business profitability."

Net profit from the banking segment for the first half of this year was 356.2 billion won, down 54 billion won year-on-year. Busan Bank posted net profit of 201.2 billion won, a decrease of 50.5 billion won (20.1%), while Kyongnam Bank posted 155 billion won, a decrease of 3.5 billion won (2.21%).

In contrast, net profit from the non-banking segment for the first half of this year surged to 172.6 billion won, an increase of 63.8 billion won (58.6%) from the same period last year. BNK Asset Management earned 37.6 billion won, up by 26 billion won; BNK Securities posted 45.6 billion won, up 23.1 billion won.

BNK Capital reported 78.7 billion won, an increase of 9.1 billion won from the same period last year, and BNK Savings Bank recorded 7.1 billion won, up by 2.3 billion won. BNK Venture Investment turned to the black, shifting from a net loss of 1.1 billion won to a net profit of 1.7 billion won.

The group’s asset quality indicators improved: the non-performing loan (NPL) ratio for the second quarter of this year was 1.46%, and the delinquency ratio was 1.34%, representing improvements of 0.11 percentage points and 0.08 percentage points, respectively, compared to the first quarter.

The common equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio, which indicates the adequacy of the group's capital, was 12.14%, a decrease of 0.16 percentage points from the previous quarter. BNK Financial Group attributed this to asset growth centered on high-quality assets and its ongoing shareholder return policy, despite efficient management of risk-weighted assets and increased retained earnings.

The board of directors resolved to pay a quarterly cash dividend of 150 won per share, and all of the approximately 3.49 million treasury shares (worth about 60 billion won) purchased in the first half of this year are scheduled to be canceled in the third quarter.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.