A scene from Chairman Kim Kwang-soo being welcomed at the Gumi Branch of NH Financial Group in Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province, as he visits the local office on Nov. 16 on a leg of his country-wide tour to call on the group’s regional offices. (Photo: NHFG)

NH Financial Group is targeting net profit of 1.5 trillion won next year, with a strategy designed to strengthen its foundation for growth. That could rise to as much as 1.8 trillion won if the farm support fund provided by the National Agricultural Cooperatives Federation (NACF) is considered.

The financial group said recently it has firmed up its management plan for next year, including the reorganizational plan to achieve the goal for next year.
Chairman Kim Kwang-soo said the group’s net profit for this year would hit around 1 trillion won, the largest since NH Financial Group was launched, a great improvement in the group’s operation and the group will focus on consolidating its growth base to further boost its profit in the coming years.

The group’s net profit up to the 3rd quarter this year came to around 1.071,1 trillion won, up 47.9 percent on year, and likely to come to 1.5 trillion won next year, the largest since the group kicked off its operation, and up around 50 percent more than the targeted figures for this year.

The management target for next year will be focused on reform on management structure and expanding the potentials for growth while strengthening the group’s overall control capacity over its affiliates and lead them to solidify their professionalism.

In detail, the management system will be made highly effective, its operation centered on customers, strengthen future growth engines, and further refine the independent nature of the group’s identity.

The group will take up such new businesses as REITS and real estate trust to expand its profit through new business sectors while running the portion of the assets acquired thru such means as M&As and investments in stakes based on the new plans set up just to operate those new assets in the most profitable ways.

The group will have an IT specialist in just ab out every strategic meeting while its WM and CIB sectors will be directly managed by the business strategy headquarters to be set up later.

In order to protect the consumers, the group and its affiliates will designate an officer in overall charge of consumer protection.

The group also set up the platform for Big Data to control the group’s entre information to boost its competitive power of its digital facilities based on a strategy already set up to be run by some 1,000 personnel to be trained as the Data Scientists.

The group has also decided to form the NH Digital Campus to research on AI and other future growth engines in cooperation with fintech firms and other firms with tie-up with the group. The rise of NH Financial Group to the nation’s fourth-largest financial group has not only reshaped the local financial landscape, but also wowed critics who had been skeptical of whether it was capable of such a feat.

In the recent process of acquiring Woori Investment & Securities, Woori Aviva Life Insurance and Woori Savings Bank, the group has beaten Woori Financial Group in terms of assets.

“NH Financial is now ready to compete with the industry’s top players,” said the NH Financial Group chairman. Despite the rise to stardom, NH stresses that the group will always stand out from its peers due to its roots in the agricultural sector.

“We have a long-standing relationship with local farmers that has formed the bedrock of our current nationwide business network that still places the highest priority on ordinary Koreans,” said Cha Jong-in, an NH Financial spokesman.