Hana Financial Group swings to black in Q2

(ATTN: ADDS details in para 7, 9, 11-14)
SEOUL, July 24 (Yonhap) -- Hana Financial Group Inc., South Korea's No. 4
financial services company, said Friday it moved back to the black in the second
quarter on lower loan-loss reserves and one-off gains.

Net profit amounted to 196.6 billion won (US$157.2 million) in the April-June
period, a turnaround from a loss of 323.3 billion won three months earlier, the
group said in a regulatory filing. But compared with a year earlier, net income
declined 36.5 percent.
Sales fell 7.9 percent on-year to 5.37 trillion won and operating income declined
37.7 percent to 250.8 billion won, it added.
Shares of the group closed down 2.78 percent to 31,450 won on the main bourse.
The results came after the stock market closed.
"The group swung to a profit as commission income rose and bad-debt provisioning
declined," an official at the group said.
Hana Group suffered losses after Taesan LCD Co., a local maker of parts used for
computer screens, collapsed due to losses from currency options contracts. But
the won's recent ascent against the U.S. dollar helped Hana Group trim such
losses, enabling the company to hold less bad-debt provisioning.
Hana Financial put aside 82.1 billion won in reserves against risky loans during
the second quarter, down from 563.2 billion won the previous quarter.
The group also booked one-time pre-tax profits of 15.6 billion won by selling a
stake in Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co. in May.
Hana Group's total assets reached 158.5 trillion won as of the end of June, it said.
Hana Bank, the group's flagship unit, reported a net income of 169.8 billion won
in the second quarter, a turnaround from a net loss of 305 billion won the
previous quarter, it said.
The lender's net interest margin, a key measure of profitability from lending,
was 1.43 percent in the second quarter, while non-performing loans shrank to 1.72
percent of the bank's total lending as of the end of June, down from 1.76 percent
three months earlier.
Hana Bank's capital adequacy ratio, a barometer of financial soundness, stood at
13.9 percent in the second quarter, up from 13.56 percent.
The lender is poised to spin off its card unit in September, with operation
planned to start the next month in a bid to beef up its non-banking sector.
"Hana Bank is seeking to form joint ventures with other sectors like telecom or
retailing in order to draw a wider range of clients," a bank official said.
pbr@yna.co.kr
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