For Woori Financial Group, 2021 was the best ever year in its history. It succeeded in its complete privatization and logged its highest business performance ever, with its annual net profit nearly doubling from 2020.
On top of that, Woori Financial Group Chairman Sohn Tae-seung’s M&A deals finally paid off, showing that the proportion of Woori Bank’s net profits in the group’s total net profits gradually fell. The proportion had peaked at 90 percent.
Woori Financial Group announced on Feb. 9 that it posted net profit of 390 billion won in the fourth quarter of in 2021. As a result, its annual net profit in 2021 reached 2,588 billion won.
Woori Financial Group booted its net profit by 98 percent, considering that its net profit amounted 1,307 billion won in 2020.
Woori Bank, Woori Financial Group’s flagship affiliate, posted 2,375.5 billion won in net profit in 2021, successfully raising its net profit from 1,363 billion won in 2020.
In addition, the lender accounted for 83 percent of Woori Financial Group’s total net profit, driving the overall growth of the group’s earnings. An increase in interest income on the back of rising interest rates led to a rise in Woori Bank’s net profit.
As of the end of in 2021, Woori Financial Group’s net interest margin (NIM) stood at 1.42 percent, up 0.17 percent points from 1.25 percent at the end of 2020. Its interest income naturally grew as its net interest margins increased.
Woori Bank’s interest income in 2021 amounted to 5,922 billion won, up 11.9 percent from 5,291 billion won in 2020.
“The growth of solid loan assets centered on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and an increase in low-cost deposits made an improvement to Woori Bank’s profit generation structure, significantly scaling up the bank’s interest income,” a Woori Bank official explained.
Woori Bank’s non-interest profit continued to grow in 2021. As of the end of 2021, its non-interest income stood at 95.4 billion won, up 33.1 percent from 71.7 billion won at the end of the previous year.
What stood out among Woori Financial Group’s business performances in 2021 was that the proportion of non-banking affiliates’ net profits increased in earnest.
In fact, Woori Financial Group’s non-banking affiliates accounted for only 10 percent of its net profit in 2019, but the percentage climbed to 17.2 percent at the end of in 2021.
This is attributed to the effects of M&A deals Chairman Son struck after the transition into the holding company system.
Woori Card, which has been in charge of Woori Financial Group for a long time, posted net profits of 2007 billion won in 2021. Its net profit increased by 67 percent compared to 2020.
Woori Investment Bank racked up 80 billion won in net profits in 2021. This was an increase of 27 percent compared to 63 billion won in the previous year.
Woori Financial Capital, which began contributing to Woori Financial Group’s business performances in earnest in 2021, posted net profits of 140.6 billion won, the second-largest net profits after Woori Card.
Woori Savings Bank, which was under Woori Financial Capital but was spun off as a subsidiary of Woori Financial Group, also played a big role in increasing Woori Financial Group’s earnings by posting net profits of 15.3 billion won.
In addition, Woori Asset Trust and Woori Asset Management posted net profits of about 50 billion won, helping Woori Financial Group strengthen its non-banking business portfolio.
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