Woori Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:WF) Q2 2023 Earnings Conference Call July 25, 2024 8:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Han Hong Sung - Head of Investor Relations
Lee Sung-Wook - Group Chief Financial Officer

Conference Call Participants

Han Hong Sung

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I'm Han Hong Sung, Head of IR, here at Woori Financial Group. I would like to sincerely thank all of you for taking the time to participate in Woori Financial Group's Earnings Conference Call despite your busy schedules.

On today's call, we have Group CFO, Lee Sung-Wook; Group CEO, [Yim Jong-Yong]; and Group CRO, Park Jang-Geun. Today's earnings announcement will be conducted in the following sequence. First, a presentation of the group's financial performance by Mr. Lee Sung-Wook, our Group CFO, followed by a presentation on key measures to enhance corporate value announced today. And lastly, we will proceed with the Q&A session.

We would also like to inform our international investors that simultaneous interpretation service will be available for your convenience.

Let's now start with Woori Financial Group's business results for the first half of 2024.

Lee Sung-Wook

Good afternoon. I'm Lee Sung-Wook, CFO of Woori Financial Group. I would like to highlight that today is very important. We will be sharing with you the first half performance, and we have also announced our value-up plans of our group. I would like to make sure that I share with you as transparent as possible all the information we have available for you.

Now without further ado, I would like to present the financial performance for the first half of 2023. Please refer to Page 3 of the financial performance materials available on our website.

Let me start with Woori Financial Group's net income. In the first half of 2024, the group recorded a net income of KRW1.755 trillion, up 14.1% compared to the same period last year. Despite additional credit cost provisions for real estate PF, net income for Q2 was KRW931.4 billion, significantly surpassing market consensus and achieving the highest quarterly performance ever.

With improved profit generation and stable cost management, the Group's ROE rose to 10.8%. Notably, as a result of ongoing efforts in cost optimization, the C/I ratio recorded 39.9%, falling below 40% for the first time since the establishment of the holding company.

Additionally, today, Woori Financial Group's Board of Directors confirmed and announced a quarterly dividend of KRW180 per share as in the previous quarter.