Hana Financial Group Inc. (A086790) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

[Foreign Language] [Interpreted] I'd like to begin by introducing the members of senior management from the group and its major affiliates. The group CFO, Jongmoo Park, is here with us; the Group CRO, Jae-shin Kang is with us; the Group CSO, Jae-hyeok Yang is in attendance. Next, we have Hana Bank, our CFO, [indiscernible]; Hana Bank's CRO, [indiscernible]. Finally, joining us from Hana Securities is CFO, [indiscernible]. Today, after presentation of the group's business results for the first quarter of 2024, a Q&A session will follow. For your information, the earnings release material is available for download on our website. And the business results discussed today and the forward-looking outlook, given may differ significantly from the actual business results, depending on the changes in the macroeconomic and market situation. Now I would like to turn the floor over to CFO, Jongmoo Park for the 2024 Q1 earnings presentation of Hana Financial Group.

Greetings, everyone. I am Jongmoo Park, CFO of Hana Financial Group. I would like to walk you through the 2024 Q1 group business results. First, I will cover the financial highlights. Please refer to Page 3. Hana Financial Group's 2024 Q1 net income posted KRW 1.034 trillion, a 6.2% drop Y-o-Y. Despite one-off costs, including provisions for Bank H Index ELS loss compensation, core income, a combination of interest income and fee income showed robust improvement, achieving solid performance, surpassing the market consensus. In particular, in case of the group's fee income, along with the credit card fee growth through improving profitability on the back of IB fee recovery due to high-quality IB deals, including acquisition financing and consistent growth of accumulative fees, including retirement pension and operating lease grew 15.2% Y-o-Y and led the group's performance improvement. Next, group's Q1 G&A posted KRW 1,097.8 billion, despite recurring cost increased items, including increase of prices and labor costs and IT investment, along with continuing group level cost control efforts. As a result of preemptive execution of bank ERP costs in Q4 of the previous year, group's G&A went down 0.9% Y-o-Y. Accordingly, the C/I ratio, which expresses the group's cost efficiency, posted 37.4% and recover to the level of Q1 of the previous year. In addition, the group's 2024 Q1 credit cost ratio posted 25 bp and improved significantly Y-o-Y. Along with the base effect from the previous year's Q1 PF loan-related preemptive provisioning, this was mostly attributable to partial provisioning write-back, which took place in this quarter. However, looking at the current domestic and external economic environment with high inflation and favorable employment indicators in the U.S., it is true that there is a higher possibility that the current high interest rate environment will be prolonged. Accordingly, we're mindful of nonbanking delinquency increase in IB asset-related potential risks, including domestic PF loans and are exerting our utmost effort to monitor and risk manage the group's loan assets so that the recurring credit cost can be managed within our annual business plan range. Please go to Page 4. 2024 Q1 group NIM posted 1.77%, a 1 bp increase Q-o-Q and Hana Bank NIM recorded 1.55%, a 3 bp increase Q-o-Q. The major reason for Hana Bank NIM increase is recognized to be improvement of the one deposit loan pricing following high interest rate time deposit maturity repayment. Next, group's Q1 interest income posted KRW 2,220.6 billion. Compared to Q1 of the previous year, bank and group NIM went down. But since bank's high-quality asset focused, loan asset growth mostly offset the return reduction effect on the back of interest income improvement of some nonbanking subsidiaries, group's interest income went up 2.1% Y-o-Y. Next, group's Q1 noninterest income posted KRW 712.6 billion, a 8.5% decline Y-o-Y. Group's fee income posted KRW 512.8 billion. And as aforementioned, solid performance was recorded but the group's disposition and valuation gains posted KRW 391.3 billion, an 18.5% drop Y-o-Y. Compared to the same period in the previous year, Hana Bank Securities income decreased and according to expansion of FX valuation losses following the decrease of won value to place on the back of increase of branch FX disposition gains based on improvement of traveler currency exchange and forward exchange performance, we were able to partially offset the decline. Accordingly, looking at the right-hand side of the page, bank loans in won posted KRW 297 trillion, a 2.1% increase YTD. With continued large corporate bank loan demand for diversification of funding structure, large corp loans increased 7.4% and led Q1 loan growth. And also for SME loans, focusing on high-quality SME loans showed a solid growth trend of 2.3%. In addition, household loans based on home mortgage loan supply based on real demand increased 0.4%, and there was stable growth in all areas of bank loan assets. Let's now go to Page 5. 2024 Q1 group NPL ratio posted 0.53%, a 3 bp increase Q-o-Q. Hana Bank's nonperforming loans decreased, but this was mostly attributable to nonbanking subsidiaries nonperforming loan increase, including Hana Card's retail assets and Hana Capital's real estate collateral loans. Next, the gross delinquency ratio is 0.54%, up 9 bps Q-o-Q. By a subsidiary, the delinquency ratio for Hana Bank is up 2 bps, up only slightly, but the savings bank and the capital included, the delinquency ratio for nonbanking subsidiaries has increased, which is the main reason for the higher growth ratio. Recently led by nonbanking subsidiaries, the delinquency ratio of PF loans are rising. But Hana Financial Group undertook a total inspection of real estate PF exposure in 2023. And also reclassify the asset quality and set aside preemptive provisions, securing sufficient loss absorption capability. In addition, we regularly check the status and management plans of problematic sites at the group level. And we are proactively managing potential risk and reducing nonperforming assets by closely managing each product side through the department for follow-up measures at each of our subsidiaries. Therefore, although it is a challenging situation, we will do our best to ensure that the credit cost is managed stably this year. We're going to skip over the group's credit cost ratio for the reasons we have already discussed. I'm now going to turn to the group's capital ratio and cash dividends on the right-hand side of the screen. At the end of Q1 of 2024, the group's CET1 ratio is expected to be 12.8%, down 34 bps QTD and the quarterly dividend was decided at KRW 600 per share. This year, as in the previous year, taking into account the gross business results and the capital ratio, we plan to flexibly manage the quarter end dividend and share buyback and cancellation. In addition, the KRW 300 billion share buyback program announced at the beginning of the year is expected to be completed in the second quarter if the current pace is maintained. We plan to retire all the shares that have been bought back. The key factors behind the change of our CET1 ratio will be discussed in greater detail on Page 6. First, if you look at the graph on the top left, the group's CET1 ratio at the end of the first quarter of 2024 is expected to be 12.88%. The increase in CET1 ratio on a YTD basis was driven by namely 40 bps coming from strong net income realization and 30 bps owing to the change in other comprehensive income. On the other hand, the factors contributing to a decline include approximately 34 bps having come down due to increase of ordinary RWA on the back of asset growth and another approximately 32 bps due to special factors expanding the RWA such as increased operational risk on the back of Korean won depreciation, introduction of Basel III transitional measures, and the recognition of provisions for H index-linked ELS issue. In addition, cash dividend and share buybacks led to the group's CET1 ratio to come down by approximately 11 bps. And although not shown in the graph, the impact of the provision for H index-linked ELS on net income reduction was approximately 5 bps. As the group's RWA increased due to various factors, the CET1 ratio at the end of the first quarter has come down significantly on a YTD basis. However, we will strive to stabilize the increase in RWA through a profitability-focused asset growth strategy and gradually improve the group's CET1 ratio. Next, in Q1 of 2024, Hana Financial Group's BPS, book value per share was approximately KRW 126,869. Thanks to shareholder value enhancement efforts such as share buybacks and cancellation, this improved 7% Y-o-Y and to 2.1% Q-o-Q. Meanwhile, the group's first quarter earnings per share is down 5.7% Y-o-Y posting KRW 347.3 billion, due to a Y-o-Y decrease in net income owing to the recognition of provisions for H index-linked ELS. This year's share buyback program has doubled in size from the previous year. After the cancellation of the treasury shares purchased this year is completed. Even if the group's net assets and the net income remained at the previous year's level, net asset value per share or the VPS and earnings per share are expected to improve. Finally, looking at the bottom left, the group's ROE and ROA for Q1 2024 are 10.44% and 0.70%, respectively. In Q1, the group generated a net income of more than KRW 1 trillion, which is in line with the group's current fundamentals, resulting in the group's ROE posting above 10%. With this, I would like to conclude the Hana Financial Group 2024 Q1 earnings presentation. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. Let us now proceed with the Q&A session.

First, I will briefly explain to you how to ask questions during this earnings presentation. [Operator Instructions] The first question has come in. The first question will be asked by Goldman Sachs, Sinyoung Park.

I'm Sinyoung Park from Goldman Sachs. I have 2 questions. My first question is related to -- well, in case of Shinhan and KB, they mentioned even payout of the dividends. So for how that do you have that kind of plan going forward for your capital policy? If you can give us more details regarding TSR, it would be greatly appreciated. And secondly, for Hana Securities, there was the turnaround. And you mentioned that it could act as a buffer for this year's profitability. So is it proceeding as planned?

Thank you very much for your questions. We will soon answer your questions. Please hold.

Thank you very much for your insightful questions. I am CFO of the group, Jongmoo Park. I know that KB and Shinhan talked about the evenly paid quarterly dividend policy. And regarding the merits of this policy, as you are probably well aware, predictability of the dividends will be heightened. And along with this, regarding the share buyback and cancellation if they're in parallel, then it can be a good way for total shareholder returns. However, for us at Hana continuing from last year, we have KRW 600 per quarter that we determined today. And in January, we talked about KRW 300 billion of share buyback and cancellation program that we're currently progressing. And from the larger perspective, for our DPS, we have a policy to maintain this or to increase this going forward, and we will continue with this. As you're probably well aware, for 2023, our net income slightly decreased. But for DPS, we pushed it up a little so that we can -- we had dividends. And of course, there will be merits to the evenly pay out quarterly dividend policy. But in our case, we will have good harmony between quarterly and year-end dividend policy that can lead to also great merits as well. And for us at Hana, we're always open to the opinions from the market. So if you give us good opinions, then we will discuss it with the management and the directors. So at the end of the day, we will do our best to enhance shareholder value. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. I am CFO of Hana Securities, [indiscernible]. Regarding the turnaround of Hana Securities, I think that was your question. And as you're well aware, in 2023, in our case, we had preemptive provisioning, and that is why we had a challenging year, however, now because of the large amount of provisioning that we had, which actually was reflected in the losses, well, we have a lot less burden of losses now. And as was mentioned by the Group CFO, in Q1, you can see that our earnings is on an improvement trend, and all the other indicators seem to be normalizing. So in this situation, you can see all the different businesses are showing a recurring level of profit. So if the economy doesn't worsen from now, then we believe that regarding our turnaround that we had expected, it will be actually normalized as we had told you before.

Thank you very much for those questions. We'll receive the next question. The next question is from HSBC Securities, Won Jaewoong.

In a challenging environment, thank you very much for such an excellent performance. With regards to credit cost, I have some questions. So this time, credit cost ratio was 0.25%. It was really noteworthy because in the past, compared to your peers, it was actually lower by more than 10 bps. So you're well managing your asset quality, I think. I think you said that there was some write-back of some of the provisioning, the impact of that. How big was the impact of that write-back? So from the 0.25%, how big of an impact did that have? And going forward, any policy changes or regulatory changes or changes in the direction of the guidance from FSS? Do you believe there are any issues that will force us to set aside more provisioning? What is the level of provisioning that is estimated by the company for this year?

So thank you very much for those questions. While we are preparing the answer, please hold. Thank you.

I'm Kang Jae-shin, the Group CRO. Let me take that question. As you have mentioned, in this quarter that was 0.25% credit cost ratio is quite low. And at the year-end of last year, we have preemptively set aside provisioning in the securities and the bank subsidiary. In Q1. There was less provision set aside for this quarter, and there was some write-back and that is the reason why the figure is so low. If there was no write-back, I would believe it would have been similar to last year. At present, in the mid- to long term, this year, mid-30 bps range is our expectation for credit cost ratio. So going into Q2 and Q3, without any write-backs, the normalized credit cost ratio, we believe, will be at that level. And also at present, the greatest issue is real estate-related issue. In Q1, there wasn't any significant provisioning that I set aside, but starting from Q2, the guidance from the FSS and defaults may take place in the market. And so we do we would need to set aside provisioning. And as soon as defaults are confirmed, we will set aside provisioning. And so starting from Q2, I think we will be more actively setting aside provisioning. So when that happens, I think it can go up to as high as mid 30 bps level. Thank you.

Thank you very much for the answer. We will take the next question. The next question is from NH Securities, Jun-Sup Jung.

I am Jun-Sup Jung from NH Securities. During your explanation and your answer, you mentioned that for Q2, I think there will be the share buyback that will be consolidated and will be completed. And will there be other policies regarding these treasury shares after that? And you made announcements for this year, and can you tell us about other plans for next year? For example, is it going to be on a semiannual basis or would it be on a per year basis like the year previous?

Thank you very much for the question. We will answer your question. Please hold.

Thank you very much. I am Jongmoo Park, the CFO of the group. As you know, we had KRW 300 billion of share buyback that we are currently implementing, and we're going to retire them as soon as they -- this is completed. And in the second half, I think you're asking if we're going to have more share buyback? And what is going to be our share -- treasury share plans for the future from next year? Well, we don't have final plans to just have it once a year. We're going to have a very flexible plan going forward, and we're going to continue on with the flexibility with not only the market participants, we are having meetings with overseas investors. So the BoD members as well as the management recognize the importance of treasury share buyback and cancellation. So we understand fully the significance. So along with our dividend policy regarding share buyback and cancellation from the perspective of total shareholder return, we are considering this. So I hope this answered your question. So regarding our future plans for share buyback and cancellation, it will be very flexible. So from the perspective of total shareholder return, we are going to maintain a certain level of DPS, and we're going to carry forward a flexible policy. Thank you.

Thank you very much for that answer. We will receive the next question. Next question is from Korea Securities, Baek Doosan.

So hello, Baek Doosan. So with regards to gains from valuation and disposal of the group is my question. So I think performance is quite good despite the Korean won depreciation. So I think the results are quite fair this quarter. So what is background to the results? And what are the strategies behind that? And on a yearly basis, at the group level, what is your outlook for gains and losses from valuation disposal? And in relation to that, currency exchange or overseas card payment, so with regards to the banking sector and the credit card sector, I think competition is intensifying because we have a high MS. So what is your view on this segment of the business? And how are you going to approach this intensified competitive landscape going forward?

Thank you very much for those highly valuable questions. So while we are preparing the answers, please hold for a while.

So thank you very much. I'm the group CFO. With regards to the gain from valuation and disposal, there has been losses of KRW 88 billion because of the FX valuation. But I think the results are not quite flat compared to previous year. I think the reasons are twofold. First of all, the market of Securities desk compared to Q1 of last year, the fluctuations of interest rate was quite low. And so operational losses from the Securities has been reduced. However, as we have noted, there was a gain from the currency exchange of travelers and also the forward exchange gains have increased from large companies. And also 24 hours, we have a FX trading system that has been operated in onerous. And because of that, there has been some results coming from that as well. And so at present, if you look at the full year gains from valuation and disposals, if excluding the FX segment, I think we will be between profit level from the first quarter for the whole year. And also your second question, the bank card, how the competitive landscape is intensifying? With regards to that -- so with regard to FX, relatively speaking, we do have relative strength and competitiveness in this regard. And I think we need to leverage that know-how and that experience, especially foreign workers and travelers. We have more than 4 million customer base in terms of travelers and complex transactions. If that can be induced then in that segment, I think we can maintain our strength. And we can also -- we will be able to maintain our market share position. So we will take a more strategic approach going forward. Thank you.

Thank you very much for the answer. We will take the next question. The next question is from Citi Securities, Miseon Lee.

I am Miseon Lee from Citi Securities. Going to Page 25, it says yearly plan for NIM and loan growth. So can you break it down for different quarters and for different types of loans regarding your loan growth forecast.

Thank you very much for your question. We will soon answer the question.

Thank you very much for your question. From Hana Bank, I am the CFO, [indiscernible]. I will answer your questions. In Q1, we had about KRW 5.7 trillion growth centering on large corp loans. So first, from large corps and then SMEs and 0.4% growth in household loans. So for the [ one ] loan growth of about 2.4% growth overall, and during each IR session, we make it clear that on a per annum basis, well, there is the nominal growth rate that is set by the regulators that we believe should be the appropriate level of loan growth for us. So in the first half, we have more loan growth. And then for second half, we have more RWA management. So it is a little bit lower than in the first half. In the case of NIM, N-I-M, you also asked a question about our outlook. Regarding our -- the interest rate, regarding the outlook by the market, well, it is very volatile. People say that it could be for 1 round or 2 rounds by others. And CD interest rate is quite high, and we have about KRW 100 trillion of CD-linked loans and 30.5% is the BOK rate. So you can see it's -- CD is 3.56%, which is very tightly interlinked. So we should have a bigger gap. But regarding the CD interest rate effect, we have had the impact in Q1, and it will be ongoing in Q2 as well. So if we have 2 rounds of rate cuts, then we believe that if we maintain CD rate of 25 bps then it already has been reflected. And for 1.5% for Q1, we're trying to maintain 1.5% for Q2 as well, but we do have some variables such as the CD interest rate. So in Q3, we want to also manage and safeguard our NIM too of 1.5% or so.

Thank you very much for your answer. We'll receive the next question. Next question is from SK Securities, Seol Yong Jin.

So we're talking about publishing for real estate PF at present. What is the exposure balance for our real estate PF and also in greater detail, even referring to about the bridge loans? And with regards to the provisioning rate regarding this factor, how high is that? And also, can you also include in your answer your -- the overseas real estate issues as well.

So thank you very much for those questions. While we are preparing the answers, please hold.

I'm Kang Jae-Shin, the Group CRO. Let me answer those questions. So real estate-related exposure at present, including PF and bridge loans, it's about KRW 8 trillion. Among them, 60% is from the bank. And securities and capital, they also have exposures as well. At present, the default rate, we -- producing rate is about 5% or so. Depending on the project side, it can be as high as 10%. But depending on the status of the product side. On average, it's 5% but we do have a differentiated approach of depending on the side. And going into Q2 and Q3, starting from bridge loans, including the PF, we do expect that restructuring will take place. And so additional provisioning is something that we will approach more aggressively. We will be setting aside more provisioning. And the next question, overseas real estate-related exposure. And in the case of overseas real estate, commercial real estate, we have been exposed mostly in U.S. and the European region. It's about KRW 5 trillion of exposure for overseas commercial real estate. And 60% is senior debt and equity and junior, we do hold some of that as well. With regards to this last year, starting from securities loss -- much of the loss has been recognized and provisioning has been set aside. But going forward, in U.S. and Europe, office buildings, the valuation keeps dropping in these regions. And the potential for interest rate cuts is being delayed. And if the profitability of the office buildings comes down, the valuation will not be able to be maintained. And we do believe that additional nonperforming loans will be coming out from this sector. And the size of the provisioning for this, last year, we have been very preemptive in setting aside the provisioning. And this year as well, when the losses are recognized, we will be setting aside sufficient provisions. And so credit cost, our estimation is about mid-30 bps range as we have said. And this has all been actually reflected in our business plan already, and we will be implementing those business plans.

Thank you very much for the answer. It seems that there are no questions in the queue now. So we will hold to see if there are any other questions coming in. We will take the next question. The next question is from DB Securities. We have Kwang Myung Jung on the line.

From DB Securities, I am Kwang Myung Jung. I have 1 question in this quarter. There were a lot of one-off. So CET1, I think it was over 13%. So can you tell us about your year and CET1 goal that you have?

Thank you very much for your question. We will soon answer the question. Please hold.

Thank you very much. I am the Group CFO, Jongmoo Park. In Q1 of the previous year, with the FX rate increase, our CET1 rate actually went down greatly. But I think this is actually occurring once again like a deja vu. And regarding ELS and FX rate and Basel III consecutive implementation, these are all one-off factors. So from Q2, this is going to be faded. So I think we can start anew. And our target rate is we set 13.22% the previous year and for this year, well, compared to the previous year, we want to at least have a slight increase. So that is why we are going to try to manage the CET1 level to a little bit higher level than the previous year. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much for that answer. I think the Q&A session is being undertaken in a very efficient manner, and we don't have any additional questions coming into the queue. With this, we would like to conclude the earnings presentation of Hana Financial Group for Q1 of 2024. For your reference, those of you who have not been able to view today's event or for those of you who like to watch it again, the recorded file will be uploaded into our website. And if you have any questions that you have not been able to ask during the event, please contact our IR team, and we will try to answer you to the best of our ability. Thank you very much. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]