Woori Financial Group’s total financial assets amounted to 403 trillion won at the end of the first quarter this year, exceeding the 400 trillion won level for the first time among all financial groups in Korea, solidifying its position as the nation’s largest, the group said recently.

The group said its Q1 profit amounted to 668.6 billion won, up 33 percent YoY and a whopping 87 percent from the preceding quarter, the group said.

The BIS ratio came to 13.8 percent and 10.5 percent on the bank level and 12.5 percent and 9.1 percent on the financial group levels, the group said.

Net interest margin (NIM) came to 2.54 percent during Q1, up 2 basis points from the previous quarter. The group was able to cut unnecessary expenses further through its “OneDo” reform campaign to make the operation more sound than before the financial crisis, the group said.

As far as the health of assets was concerned during the first quarter, no factors developed to harm it as the NPA ratio and NPL coverage ratio stood at 2.15 percent and 111 percent for the group respectively. The situation has been owed to an all-group cleanup campaign, although it was worsened somewhat from the preceding quarter mainly due to the write-off of bad assets at the end of last year and seasonal factors.

The health of assets will be the group’s top priority in its management policies in hopes of soothing the fears of investors.

In particular, the group will work to maximize its worth by strengthening its tie-ups among its affiliates and their competitive power while at the same time minimizing risks and expanding profit bases. The group will also try to find growth engines for its non-banking sectors and global businesses to step up their growth.

Officials of the group said the average share price of Woori Financial Holding Co. has been at a low level of around 22,397 won per share compared to the BPS, but they are expected to rise further when uncertainty about the group’s organizational structure goes away.

For the first quarter, Woori Bank’s operating profit amounted to 1.778 trillion won with net income of 592.3 billion won, up 286 billion won and 255 billion won respectively from the preceding quarter due to a one-time profit from the sale of Hynix Semiconductor shares and reductions in its loan loss provision, the group said.

The bank’s total assets increased by 5 trillion won to 264 trillion won at the end of Q1, but the NPL ratio increased a little to 1.88 percent compared to the end of the previous quarter, but improved by 1.58 percent YoY owing to an intensive effort to clean up the NPL last year.

Officials of the bank said they will continue to make efforts to clean up the NPL this year, too, and also to improve the bank’s ability to build a long-term growth base by expanding its customers and strengthening the growth of key non-interest commodities. The bank will also continue to help the socially weak and those isolated from financial support by upgrading its social services.

In the meantime, other affiliates of the group fared well during the first quarter including Kwangju Bank, which generated 43.7 billion won in net profit; Kyungnam Bank which brought in 54.8 billion won; Woori Investment and Securities with 67.2 billion won; Woori F&I with 14.9 billion won; and Woori Financial with 12.4 billion won, showing that the non-banking sector has also been able to consistently turn in profits.#