[Click eStock] Shinhan Financial Group Net Profit Exceeds 5 Trillion Won... Continued Efforts for Shareholder-Friendly Policies

[Asia Economy Reporter Myunghwan Lee] Hana Financial Investment announced on the 25th that it maintains a buy rating and a target price of 56,000 KRW for Shinhan Financial Group, citing signs of improvement in various concerns.

Hana Financial Investment's estimated net profit for Shinhan Financial Group in Q1 is 1.23 trillion KRW, a 3.1% increase compared to the same period last year, but slightly below market expectations. Although the KRW loan growth rate in Q1 this year is somewhat low at 0.6%, the net interest margin (NIM) is expected to rise by an additional 5 basis points, leading to a continued sharp increase in net interest income. However, Shinhan Investment Corp's performance is somewhat sluggish, and securities-related income may also decrease slightly due to rising interest rates.

Shinhan Financial Group's expected net profit for this year is approximately 4.8 trillion KRW. However, if the one-time gain from the sale of the Yeouido headquarters building is reflected, the expected net profit could exceed 5 trillion KRW. Jungwook Choi, a researcher at Hana Financial Investment, estimated, "Recently, Shinhan Investment Corp is promoting the sale of the Yeouido headquarters building through a sale-and-leaseback method, and the gain from the sale could exceed 400 billion KRW."

Meanwhile, Shinhan Financial Group's board of directors decided on the 24th to repurchase approximately 150 billion KRW worth of treasury shares through on-market purchases over the next three months and immediately retire them. The planned acquisition of 3.8 million shares represents about 0.7% of the total issued shares. Although the scale is not large, Hana Financial Investment evaluates this as a result of shareholder-friendly policy efforts and meaningful in that it opens the possibility of additional treasury share repurchases and retirements. Previously, Shinhan Financial Group was the first financial company to implement quarterly dividends last year. The Q1 dividend this year is estimated to be around 400 KRW per share.

Researcher Choi stated, "Signs of improvement in various factors are clear this year," and added, "We maintain our top pick in bank stocks."

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