(2nd LD) KB Financial Group Q1 net jumps over 5-fold

(ATTN: UPDATES with details from investor relations session in paras 12, 15-18)
SEOUL, April 30 (Yonhap) -- KB Financial Group Inc., South Korea's No. 3
financial services company, said Thursday its first-quarter earnings jumped more
than five-fold from three months earlier due to decreased loan-loss reserves.
Net profit came to 238.3 billion won (US$184.3 million) in the January-March
period, up 443.2 percent from the previous quarter, the group said in a
regulatory filing.
Revenue, however, sank 33.2 percent on-quarter to 12 trillion won while operating
profit jumped more than 12 times to 420.9 billion won.
No comparable year-earlier figures were available as the financial group was
launched in late September with eight affiliates, including flagship Kookmin
Bank, under its wing.
Shares of KB Financial closed up 6.14 percent at 39,750 won on the main bourse.
The results came after the market closed.
"The group set aside less loan-loss reserves compared with the final quarter of
last year to brace for the corporate revamp move last quarter," an official at
the group said. The group earmarked 685.2 billion won in reserves, down 42.2
percent from three months earlier.
Local banks are in the process of revamping ailing companies including
construction firms and shipbuilders in a bid to prevent potential defaults from
denting the slumping economy.
KB Financial Group's total assets reached 329 trillion won as of the end of
March, up 2.9 percent from three months earlier.
The group's profitability and financial health were dented amid the slowing
economy, reflecting challenges facing local banks.
Kookmin Bank posted a net profit of 159.1 billion won, down 74.8 percent from the
previous year. The lender posted a net loss of 318.5 billion won in the
October-December period, the first quarterly loss in four years.
The lender's net interest margin, a key barometer of profitability, reached 2.7
percent in the first quarter, down from 3.03 percent the previous quarter.
"In the second quarter, the interest margin could fall around by 0.1 percentage
point," Shin Hyun-kap, deputy president at KB Financial Group, said at an
investor relations session.
Its capital adequacy ratio, a key gauge of financial health, declined to 13.16
percent from 13.18 percent in the preceding quarter.
The bank's loan delinquency rate is on the rise as the slowing economy is
increasing the amount of bad debts. The lender's loan default rate came in at
1.05 percent as of the end of March, up from 0.65 percent at the end of last
year.
Kim Jung-hoe, president of the group, said at the session that the group could
consider mergers and acquisitions in the second half if the economy turns around
and it posts better earnings.
"KB Financial Group plans to invest about $120 million in buying an additional
6.2 percent stake in Bank CenterCredit by the end of May," said Kim, adding that
the move will make the group the largest shareholder of Kazakhstan's No. 6
lender, with 36.8 percent.
In March 2008, Kookmin Bank agreed to buy a 30 percent stake in Bank
CenterCredit, its first major overseas takeover in nearly five years. It plans to
increase its holdings to as much as 50.2 percent by 2011.
But hit by the global financial meltdown, shares of Bank CenterCredit have
tumbled, eroding values of the group's investment in the lender. In the first
quarter, the group booked 100 billion won in write-offs related to its investment
in the bank in the Central Asian country.
sooyeon@yna.co.kr
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