Hana Financial Group announced a record-high first-quarter net profit, propelled by robust fee income growth as the group strategically diversifies its revenue streams beyond traditional banking. This strong Q1 performance underscores its efforts to build a more resilient financial base.
For the January-March period, Hana Financial reported a consolidated net profit of 1.21 trillion won ($816 million). This impressive figure represents a 7.3 percent increase year-on-year and more than doubles the 569.4 billion won achieved in the prior quarter, significantly beating market expectations for its financial results.
This achievement marks the group’s highest-ever quarterly net profit, surpassing its previous record of 1.16 trillion won from the third quarter of 2024.
Total revenue soared by 71.41 percent to 29 trillion won, complemented by a strong operating profit of 1.65 trillion won, which surged 11.06 percent year-on-year.
Traditional interest income, primarily from Hana Financial’s core banking operations, reached 2.5 trillion won.
Critically, fee income emerged as a primary driver of earnings growth, propelled by a buoyant stock market. This segment surged 28 percent year-on-year to 667.8 billion won. The advance was fueled by significant gains across trust fees, brokerage commissions, discretionary investment and management fees, alongside increased underwriting and advisory fees. This diversification highlights Hana Financial’s strategic shift in revenue generation.
A Hana Financial official commented on the robust results, stating, “Hana Financial delivered strong performance despite prolonged uncertainty in domestic and global financial markets and one-off costs, including 82.3 billion won in foreign exchange translation losses due to a weaker currency.” This underscores the group’s resilience.
Key profitability metrics also demonstrated improvement: Return on Equity (ROE), vital for sustainable corporate value, rose by 0.29 percentage points year-on-year to 10.91 percent. The group’s Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio, a crucial capital buffer, was estimated at a healthy 13.09 percent, comfortably within its target range of 13-13.5 percent.
Further demonstrating its commitment to shareholder value, and backed by solid fundamentals and ample capital buffers, the board approved a 200 billion won share buyback and cancellation. This is part of an ongoing 400 billion won program announced earlier in the year. Additionally, Hana Financial declared a quarterly cash dividend of 1,145 won per share, an increase of approximately 11.6 percent from last year’s average payout, signaling strong investor returns.
silverstar
