JB Financial Group (KRX:175330) reported full-year 2018 net income of KRW243.1 billion, up 31.4% from 2017. In terms of EPS, the Group reported KRW1,515 per share, up by 25.1%, compared with KRW1,211 for the prior year. The Group’s consolidated net income recorded KRW321.0 billion, up 21.4% year on year.

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JB Financial Group (KRX:175330) reported full-year 2018 net income of KRW243.1 billion, up 31.4% fro ...

JB Financial Group (KRX:175330) reported full-year 2018 net income of KRW243.1 billion, up 31.4% from 2017. In terms of EPS, the Group reported KRW1,515 per share, up by 25.1%, compared with KRW1,211 for the prior year. The Group's consolidated net income recorded KRW321.0 billion, up 21.4% year on year. (Graphic: Business Wire)

Chief Strategy and Financial Officer Jae-Yong Lee said, “2018 was another robust year for JB Financial Group, with the Group beating its 2018 target net income of KRW208.3 billion by 16.7%, recording more than 20% net income growth for three consecutive years. The strong result reflected the increase in interest income stemming from the outstanding improvement in NIM and cost control efforts which overall increased operating leverage. With 100% controlling stake in Kwangju Bank from the share swap completed in October 2018, we expect strong earnings momentum will continue in 2019 and we set 2019 net income target as KRW314.5 billion.”

The Group’s net interest income grew 9.5% on-year to KRW1,252.4 billion, thanks to the strong improvement in net interest margin despite the slow loan growth. Banking affiliates’ loans in KRW decreased by 3.0% from the prior year to KRW31.0 trillion, as the outstanding group intermediate mortgage loans decreased by KRW1.81 trillion in 2018. The Group’s net interest margin sored 21bps year on year (+17bps YoY for banking arms), driven by the rise in lending rates thanks to the replacement effect on lower-yielding group intermediate mortgages, policy rate hike and lesser funding cost pressure due to limited expansion in loans.

As a result, the Group’s ROE and ROA for 2018 came in at 9.1% and 0.68%. Thanks to the preemptive risk management, the asset quality remained healthy with NPL and delinquency ratio standing at 0.92% (down 4bps YoY) and 0.82% (down 5bps YoY), respectively.

On the other hand, thanks to the Group’s primary effort to improve its capital ratio, the preliminary common equity tier 1 ratio recorded 9.07%, up 0.50%p year over year. Lee said, “We plan to improve our CET1 ratio to 9.6% at the end of 2019 and will try to strengthen the dividend policy while maintaining stable capital adequacy ratio.”

Meanwhile, each of the Group’s three major subsidiaries showed outstanding results. Especially, Jeonbuk Bank’ net income grew by 54.5% on-year to KRW100.5 billion in 2018. Kwangju Bank’s net income recorded KRW153.3 billion, up 13.5% year over year. Despite the intensifying competition in the auto-finance industry, JB Woori Capital’s net income also grew by 5.0% to KRW75.1 billion in 2018.

The 2018 business result materials are available on the English page of www.jbfg.com, under Investor Relations, Business Result.