Busan Bank`s Q1 net more than halves

SEOUL, April 24 (Yonhap) -- Busan Bank, South Korea's leading provincial lender,
said Friday its earnings more than halved in the first quarter from a year
earlier, hurt by rising loan-loss reserves.
Net income stood at 41.6 billion won (US$31 million) in the January-March period,
down 50.7 percent from a year earlier, the lender said in a regulatory filing.
Revenue, however, spiked 51 percent to 1.05 trillion won, while operating profit
tumbled 64 percent to 42.1 billion won.
Shares of Busan Bank finished unchanged from Thursday's close at 7,160 won on the
Seoul bourse.
The tumble in earnings resulted from increased provisions against risky loans,
the bank said, adding it set aside 73.8 billion won in loan-loss reserves.
As of the end of March, the rate of non-performing loans stood at 1.78 percent
with the lender's capital adequacy ratio, a key measure of financial soundness,
coming to 14.4 percent, it said.
pbr@yna.co.kr
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