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Photo of BNK Financial Group head office. (Photo=BNK Finance) |
[Alpha Biz= Reporter Kim Sangjin] BNK Financial Group has posted a strong performance for the first half of the year, with significant growth driven by robust interest income and expanded profits from its banking subsidiaries, particularly Kyongnam Bank. The company announced plans for a 20 billion won share buyback and cancellation in the second half of the year.
On July 31, BNK Financial reported a second-quarter net profit of 242.8 billion won, up approximately 19.4% from 203.5 billion won in the same period last year. For the first half of the year, the company recorded a net profit of 492.3 billion won, a 7% increase from 460.2 billion won in the first half of the previous year.
Both interest income and non-interest income showed growth. For the first half of the year, interest income increased by 2.1% to 1.479 trillion won, while non-interest income surged by 34.8% to 258.9 billion won, driven by gains from securities.
Despite a rise in provisions for bad debts to 367.7 billion won—up 26.9% from the previous year—BNK Financial managed to offset the increase with higher core profits. However, asset quality deteriorated slightly, with the non-performing loan ratio rising to 1.22% and the delinquency ratio to 0.94% by the end of the second quarter.
Capital levels improved, with the Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio increasing to 12.16%, up 16 basis points from the previous quarter. Based on this strengthened capital ratio, BNK Financial plans to double its interim dividend to 200 won per share. The company will also cancel 130 billion won of treasury shares purchased in the first half on August 23, and intends to conduct an additional 20 billion won share buyback and cancellation in the latter half of the year.
AlphaBIZ Kim SangJin(letyou@alphabiz.co.kr)
