Earnings Labs

KB Financial Group Inc. (KB)

Q2 2014 Earnings Call· Fri, Jul 25, 2014

$106.93

+0.15%

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Transcript

Kyu Sul Choi

Management

Good afternoon. My name is Kyu Sul Choi, the Head of IR at KB Financial Group. Thank you for taking part in today's earnings conference of KB Financial Group for the First Half of 2014. The access to this conference is being provided via Internet and conference call, being webcast real-time for Korea and abroad. During the Q&A, you may call in to ask questions. Joining us in today's earnings conference, we have with us KBFG's CFO, Woong-Won Yoon; and executives from KBFG's subsidiaries. The conference will consist of the earnings presentation by our CFO, Woong-Won Yoon, on the earnings results for the first half 2014, followed by a Q&A session, at which time you may call in for questions. Let me now present our CFO, Woong-Won Yoon, for the earnings presentation.

Woong-Won Yoon

Management

[Interpreted] Good afternoon. My name is Woong-Won Yoon, the CFO of KB Financial Group. Before going into the earnings results, I would like to provide a brief overview of our business for the first half of 2014. Although the Q1 muted loan growth and NIM contraction limited the top-line growth, during Q2, appropriate level of loan growth and NIM improvement led to an expanded interest income and resulting top-line enhancement. On the cost front, the provision for credit losses and G&A only grew by a small margin remaining well under control. During the second half, we expect the continued loan growth trend and gradual NIM improvement to lead to the top-line recovery trend. The cost is also expected to continue showing IA stable picture as well. Let me begin the earnings presentation of KBFG for the first half of 2014. First the financial highlights. KBFG’s profit for the first half posted KRW 765.2 billion, up 33.1% year-on-year. The absence of one-off factors from the same period last year including the equity swap impairment loss and BCC equity method loss attributed to such increase. Profit for Q2 marked KRW 391.7 billion, boosted by the appropriate level of loan growth and NIM enhancements and the insuring top-line recovery. As a result, profit went up 4.9% quarter-on-quarter. As of the end of June, including trust and AUM the Group’s total assets marked around KRW 393 trillion as of the end of June, up 3.5% year-to-date. The bank’s loans in won rose 1.5% year-to-date, thanks to the loan growth achieved in Q2. The Group NIM for Q2 stood at 2.48% going up 2 basis points. The first half cumulative NIM for 2014 was 2.47%. Next page please. The provision for credit losses for the first half came in at KRW 613.2 billion despite the…

Kyu Sul Choi

Management

There was an earnings presentation by our CFO. We will now begin the Q&A session.

Operator

Operator

(Operator Instructions) Yes, first question from Mr. Byung-Gun Lee from Dongbu Securities. Please go ahead sir. Byung-Gun Lee – Dongbu Securities: [Interpreted]: Good afternoon. My name is Byung-Gun Lee. First of all thank you for your positive results. I have two questions. Number one, perhaps it was because of over expectation by the market and by our security firms, but I think that NIM growth for the quarter or the first half has not increased as much as possible. Despite the maturing of the high yield debt, I think that the full impact will begin to show in the third quarter. So, how will that improve your NIM for Q3 and I believe that the positive rate will go down further, so can you actually give us some view of the bank or the financial holding company regarding the outlook for the NIM going forward? Secondly, recently regarding capital efficiency improvement and diversification has been on the top of your agenda and I think that you have decided to enter into the LIG acquisition. So in time, I am sure you will go through the stages including the approval of a receipt. After obtaining such approval, you have to obtain additional 10% of the shares, so that it can be included in your financial holding company structure. So can you share with us through what methodology you will be gaining additional shares of LIG. I am sure you have no definite answer yet, but, I am sure you could choose to buy the shares of treasury shares of LIG, but in that case if LIG has to pay corporate tax on that and as you are well aware, LIG has very relatively low IBC ratio compared to peers. So according to the Article of Incorporation, up to 20%, I believe that you have the option of rights issued through third-party allotment. So, at the moment, what major options can you actually leverage going forward?

Woong-Won Yoon

Management

[Interpreted] Thank you very much for your questions. You raised two questions. So let me first address your question on NIM. You mentioned that the NIM improvement was not as high as your expectation. But you should remember that during the first half, we were pretty much forced to expand the fixed rate loans. So we had to offer very low interest rate on some of the fixed rate loans to comply with the guidelines. And as the results we did acquire more percentage of these higher share of fixed rate loans during the first half. So we don’t have too much effect expected for the second half. Regarding the maturing of the high yield debt, I think that such positive impact will continue to show into the second half. And also regarding the credit card business, the operation is normalizing quite rapidly. Therefore in terms of the interest income in the second half, we really expect higher results. So overall, our NIM during the second half will continue to show gradual improvement. And we will do our best to make that happen. And your second questions had to do with the acquisition of LIG. And you were asking about the methodology through which we may acquire additional shares of LIG. I am sure you are quite knowledgeable about this issue. As you know, LIG is a listed company and they have to go through a lot of their internal reviews therefore, I think that it is premature for us to mention anything very specific right now. So we will share with you very actively once things become more finalized. I apologize for not being able to give you very definite answers on the second question. Byung-Gun Lee – Dongbu Securities: [Interpreted] Thank you very much for the answer.

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

[Interpreted] Please do understand that this is a quite sensitive issue. But we understand that various different options and measures are being considered and most confident that we will find the most adequate approach. We will wait a little more for questions.

Operator

Operator

We have a question online from Kyobo Securities, Seok Kyu Hwang. Please go ahead. Seok Kyu Hwang – Kyobo Securities: [Interpreted] Yes, I am Seok Kyu Hwang from Kyobo Securities. I have two questions. In the second quarter, we see growth in the home equity by about 5%. So I think that you are able to recover from the first quarter, but there isn’t some easing of regulation of LTV and DTI. So what do you expect additional upside in terms of the growth for the loans is going to be going forward? And also, if you look at the SMEs, we haven’t seen much growth in SMEs loans. Can we expect more growth in the second half of the year by different borrower segments? If you could elaborate that will be helpful and that the growth is quite stagnant. But in terms of market share as well, can you provide some more color after the future direction of the credit card business, especially in terms of the expenses, especially for marketing expenses, how much of an increase are you seeing for your credit card business, because you would need to recover your previous spending in terms of credit card business. But according to the data that I have, it’s difficult for me to identify that additional increase in marketing cost. So, could you provide some more color please?

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

[Interpreted] Yes, I will respond to this respective question. I think that you are quite interested in our growth strategy for different business lines in the first half of the year. As you know, we have grown mostly on mortgage loans and also for LTV and DTI deregulation we do believe that there will be some additional potential for loan growth going forward. Now in terms of the size of that impact, we are internally coming up with some estimates. Now also out in the market, the so-called sound of borrowers or the – if there are any demand from borrowers who are capable to make the repayments we will be quite aggressive in originating the loan. However if you are a borrower with multiple borrowings and also with low level of capacity to repay then we will be very cautious. Now if you look at the home equity loans as well as unsecured household loans, we in the second half of the year will be expanded to more than the first half and also for the SOHO loans and also for corporate loans, we do expect a higher growth rate in the second half compared to the first half. Now, the SME loans, yes in the first half of the year, we haven’t seen much growth, but we think that in the second half of the year, we are expecting a bigger margin of growth. Now having said that, one of the things that we are most concerned about or looking at is that we will look at companies with high productivity rate and also with companies with potential future cash flow generating capabilities. Those aspects we will always keep in mind as priority. For growth in credit card business, in the first half of the year due to…

Operator

Operator

Yes, we will entertain the next question. Mr. Hwang from Macquarie Securities. Please go ahead sir. Chan Young Hwang – Macquarie Securities: [Interpreted] Good afternoon, my name is Hwang. First time in a long time, I am glad to see some timeline growth. So I have a very brief question. I believe that the government stands on dividend policy, it seems to be changing. So how is the government stance change going to affect the capital management of KB Financial Group going forward? If you could briefly comment on that, that would be great.

Unidentified Company Representative

Analyst

[Interpreted] Actually, we do also welcome the government’s stance and ultimately we are pursuing the maximization of the shareholder benefit, of which dividend would be a very critical portion. So, we would be very proactive in order to meet the expectations of the shareholders. I believe that the stance change of the government towards the more dividend-friendly manner would possibly give us the right signal to improve the payout ratio going forward. So, in other words, in terms of dividend, we will do our best to expand our payout ratio going forward.