Woori Financial Group reported a net profit of 615.6 billion won for the first quarter on the 25th. This represents a 25.3% decrease compared to the first quarter of last year, making it the only major financial holding company to experience a decline in performance.
A Woori Financial representative noted, "In the first quarter, there were one-time factors such as expenses related to voluntary retirement and the launch of securities firms, as well as an expansion of investments in future growth areas like digital and information technology. Looking ahead, we plan to continue company-wide efforts for cost efficiency and manage selling and administrative expenses stably."
While net profit decreased, revenue generation remained stable. Woori Financial's interest revenue for the first quarter was 2.2252 trillion won, an increase of 2.4% compared to the same period last year (2.1982 trillion won). Non-interest revenue also grew from 350.7 billion won in the first quarter of last year to 357.5 billion won in this year's first quarter, a rise of 2%.
Woori Financial's common equity capital ratio rose by 30 basis points to 12.42% compared to the previous quarter (1 basis point = 0.01 percentage points). Consequently, the possibility of achieving this year's target of 12.5% early has increased. Based on this, Woori Financial's board of directors decided to set the first quarter dividend at 200 won per share, an 11% increase compared to the previous year. The scale of the company's stock repurchase and cancellation at the beginning of the year has been expanded to 150 billion won, about a 10% increase from last year.
A Woori Financial representative stated, "In the first quarter, we significantly improved capital adequacy through various efforts to respond to increased volatility in the financial markets. In the second quarter, we expect the group's revenue generation capacity to further improve through the full-scale operation of securities firms and diversification into businesses like budget mobile phones."