[Alpha Biz= Reporter Paul Lee] On the 16th, Lotte Card disclosed that its net profit for the first quarter of this year amounted to 24.9 billion won, marking a 54.3% decrease compared to the same period last year (544 billion won).
Despite robust growth in credit sales and financial operations, assets increased by 12.3% compared to the previous year (excluding 469.6 billion won of assets from the first quarter of 2023's acquisition of Rocamobile), and operating revenue expanded by 11.6%, leading to an increase in market share. However, despite improvements in asset quality management leading to a decrease in the provision expense ratio, net profit declined due to increased funding costs stemming from the company's independent asset growth and prolonged high-interest rates across the market.
Lotte Card explained that the increase in funding costs was influenced by the rapid rise in interest rates following the LEGOLAND incident in 2022, but anticipates performance improvement from the second half of the year through ongoing optimization of funding structure.
AlphaBIZ Paul Lee(hoondork1977@alphabiz.co.kr)
