Woori Financial posts 1.05 trillion won third-quarter net profit, down 15.7 percent

Woori Financial Group said Friday its third-quarter net income fell 15.7 percent from a year earlier to 1.05 trillion won ($792 million), a result the group attributed to the absence of a one-off gain booked a year ago when it acquired an insurer.

For the January-September period, net income came to 2.66 trillion won ($2.01 billion), down 4.9 percent from 2.8 trillion won ($2.11 billion) a year earlier. Cumulative net operating revenue climbed 6.2 percent to a record 8.68 trillion won ($6.55 billion). Interest income rose 4.5 percent to 7.04 trillion won ($5.31 billion) and non-interest income advanced 13.9 percent to 1.64 trillion won ($1.24 billion). Investment banking fees more than doubled from a year earlier. Excluding last year's bargain-purchase gain from the insurance acquisition, cumulative net income would have risen 18.7 percent.

Woori Bank, the group's flagship, earned 1.03 trillion won ($776 million) in the third quarter, up 22 percent from the previous quarter and its highest ever for a single quarter. Its nine-month net income reached 2.4 trillion won ($1.81 billion). Won-denominated loans stood at 313 trillion won ($236 billion) at the end of September, up 4.1 percent from the end of last year.

The group attributed the cumulative gain to expanded corporate lending centered on productive finance and stronger non-banking businesses. "On the back of the industry's top-tier capital strength, we expanded corporate lending centered on productive finance and quickly restored our business capacity," a Woori Financial official said. "By strengthening non-banking competitiveness, managing risk preemptively and improving cost efficiency, the group's ordinary earnings power has moved up a level."

The selling and administrative expense ratio fell 0.8 percentage point to 42.3 percent, while credit costs accounted for 0.42 percent of lending, down 0.1 percentage point. Return on common equity rose to 9.9 percent for the nine months, compared with 9 percent in the first half.

The group declared a 220 won dividend per share for the third quarter, the only tax-exempt dividend among the country's financial holding companies.