[Click eStock] Hana Financial, Performance Improvement and Shareholder Returns

[Asia Economy Reporter Junho Hwang] Samsung Securities has raised the target price of Hana Financial Group to 60,000 KRW. Despite incurring large one-time expenses related to voluntary retirement in the first quarter of this year, the company achieved net profit exceeding expectations, the firm stated.

Kim Jae-woo, a researcher at Samsung Securities, said on the 25th, "Focus is needed on improving recurring profit levels through interest income growth and defense of the non-bank sector," adding, "Considering the earnings improvement outlook, active shareholder return policies, and valuation attractiveness, we maintain a positive view."

Hana Financial recorded a net profit of 902.2 billion KRW in the first quarter of this year, an 8.0% increase compared to the previous year. Despite large one-time expenses such as 175.9 billion KRW related to voluntary retirement and 31.5 billion KRW in foreign exchange losses, the profit improvement trend continued. Excluding one-time factors, profits are estimated at 990 billion KRW.

Hana Financial's interest income was 2.2 trillion KRW, up 0.8% quarter-on-quarter and 17.3% year-on-year. This was mainly due to a 0.1% quarter-on-quarter increase in household loans, a 1.2% growth in total loans, and a 3 basis point improvement in net interest margin (NIM).

Non-bank sector profits amounted to 312 billion KRW (before considering equity ratio), decreasing by only 6.3% year-on-year. The contribution of non-bank profits was 34.6%, slightly down from 35.7% for the full year last year.

Researcher Kim stated, "Hana Financial announced a 150 billion KRW share buyback cancellation, and additional efforts such as further share repurchases for shareholder returns are expected to be key going forward."

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