Chairman Kim Jung-tai of Hana Financial Group (Photo: Hana Financial Group)

The Hana Financial Group announced on Feb. 4 that it posted 2,408.4 billion won in annual net profit last year, up 7.35 percent year on year based on consolidated financial statements.

During the same period, its sales and operating profit swelled 18.87 percent and 3.91 percent to 38,650.1 billion won and 3,275.4 billion won, respectively.

“We recorded the best-ever business performance since the establishment of the Hana Financial Group in December 2005,” said an official of the Hana Financial Group.

“We could continue to grow as proceeds from the sale of the Myeong-dong office building, profit from equity investment in Vietnam among others offset one-off expenses such as special severance pays according to the wage peak system and non-monetary exchange loss that incurred due to the appreciation of the Korean won.”

In the fourth quarter of last year, its revenue amounted to 6,376.7 billion won, down 15.59 percent year on year. During the same period, its operating profit hit 766 billion won and its net profit 375.4 billion won. The two swelled 49.07 percent and 7.35 percent from a year before, respectively.

“Thanks to strong loan growth, the enhancement of IB sector competitiveness, and efforts to scale up collaboration, the group’s profit which combined interest income (5,773.7 billion won) and commission income (2,256.5 billion won) climbed 2.1 percent (168.9 billion won) year on year to 8,030.2 billion won,” the official said.

“Changes in sales do not have a significant effect due to the characteristics of the financial industry where commission income and interest income act as major profit makers.”

The group’s asset quality indicators also improved. At the end of last year, the group’s credit cost ratio stood at 0.18 percent, a level similar to that of the previous year and its bad loans, meaning debts overdue for more than three months, accounted for 0,48 percent, a drop of 11bp from a year earlier.

Its delinquency rate improved by 7bp to 0.30 percent. Its return on equity (ROE) and return on assets (ROA) arrived at 8.78 percent and 0.60 percent, respectively.

Hana Bank, a key subsidiary of the Hana Financial Group, posted 2,167.2 billion in annual net income in 2019, including 368.6 billion won in the fourth quarter of last year. The figure was a year on year increase of 3.58 percent.

The annual income is the highest since the launch of the integrated bank. Its core profit which combined interest income of 5,544 billion won and commission income of 886.4 billion won rose 2.7 percent year on year to 6,330.4 billion won.

During the same period, its revenue hit 30,202.5 billion won, up 16.15 percent from the previous year. Its operating profit fell 4.81 percent to 2,732.6 billion won.

Its time deposits rose 11.2 percent (13.446 billion won) from the end of the previous year to 133,367 billion won. its loan-deposit ratio stood at 94.4 percent.

Its loans added up to 21.8 billion won and small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) loans grew by 10.3 percent (8,243 billion won) year on year to 87,933 billion won thanks to asset growth strategies centered on promising SMEs. Hana Bank's total assets stood at 435,757.1 billion won.

In the meantime, Hana Bank announced on Feb. 25 that Hana Bank China, a Chinese subsidiary of Hana Bank, donated a total of three million yuan (about 510 million won) to help China recover from the global COVID-19 outbreak spreading globally and combat the deadly infectious disease.

First of all, 2.5 million yuan of the donated funds will go to the Wuhan City Charity Group in Wuhan, officially designated as the most severely affected city. The Chinese government designated the Wuhan City Charity Group as an official charity group.

The remaining 500,000 yuan will be used to purchase masks, the most important item in combating the virus, in Korea. The masks will be donated to relief groups in China, and the relief groups will distribute them in China.