[Click e-Stock] "iM Financial, Earnings Turnaround and Higher Shareholder Returns"

Analysts say that iM Financial Holdings is emerging from a period of weak earnings and is laying the groundwork for stable profit growth.

On the 10th, Kim Eungab, an analyst at Kiwoom Securities, stated that he is maintaining a Buy rating on iM Financial Holdings and raising his target price from 19,000 won to 22,500 won. Kim projected that iM Financial’s earnings will improve further. He explained, “Last year, consolidated net income came to 443.9 billion won, up 107% year-on-year. Earnings, which had deteriorated due to provisioning costs related to real estate project financing (PF), have normalized, resulting in a high profit growth rate, while provisioning costs decreased by 54%.”

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Group subsidiaries have also shown better results. Kim said, “iM Securities, which was the main cause of weak results in 2024, has turned to profit, and net income at iM Capital increased by 61%. Both the securities and capital units saw a decline in provisioning costs, and in the case of the capital business, this was additionally driven by 29% asset growth.” He forecast that next year’s net income at iM Financial will reach 468.1 billion won, up 5.5% from last year.

He also expects this year’s shareholder return ratio to be higher than last year’s. Kim noted, “Last year, the cancellation of 60 billion won worth of treasury shares reduced the number of shares outstanding by about 5%, and this year the scale of share repurchases and cancellations is expected to increase. The company has already announced a 400 billion won share repurchase in the first half of this year, and I project next year’s shareholder return ratio at 43%, higher than last year’s 38.8%.”

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