Woori Finance swings to loss in Q4

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SEOUL, Feb. 12 (Yonhap) -- Woori Finance Holdings Co., South Korea's top
financial services company, said Thursday it swung to a net loss in the fourth
quarter of 2008 due to increased provisions and investment losses.

Net loss stood at 664.8 billion won (US$477 million) in the October-December
period, compared with a profit of 111.6 billion won a year earlier, it said in a
regulatory filing. The figure marks the first quarterly loss for the company
since the first quarter of 2004.
Revenue, however, surged 66 percent on-year to 1.4 trillion won, though operating
balance fell to a 588 billion won loss from a profit of 185.5 billion won a year
ago, it said.
For all of 2008, net profit tumbled 76.6 percent on-year to 454.5 billion won on
revenue of 6.19 trillion won.
Shares of Woori Finance Holdings were trading at 7,340 won as of 1:57 p.m., down
6.14 percent from Wednesday's close.
The group attributed the dismal fourth-quarter performance to huge loan-loss
reserves and investment losses. The group put up almost 1 trillion won in loss
reserves and lost nearly 400 billion won from investments in derivatives.
Flagship unit Woori Bank's fourth-quarter earnings also swung to a loss as the
lender set aside more provisions against bad debts and suffered investment
losses, the group said.
The lender's net loss stood at 691.1 billion won last quarter, compared with a
108.8 billion won profit a year earlier, the firm said. For the whole of 2008,
the lender's net income nosedived 86.2 percent on-year to 234 billion won.
As of the end of 2008, the ratio of bad debts to total assets stood at 1.19
percent, up 0.6 percentage point from a year ago while its total assets reached
245 trillion won, it said.
The group said its banking unit will pay a dividend of 35 won per share.
pbr@yna.co.kr
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