iM Financial Group (139130) said its third-quarter net profit fell 1.4% from a year earlier, as higher corporate lending and lighter loan-loss provisions lifted earnings at its banking unit but failed to offset weakness elsewhere.
Net profit attributable to controlling shareholders came to 120.7 billion won, down from 122.4 billion won a year earlier, the group said on the 27th. Operating profit rose 4.9% to 163.5 billion won over the same period.
For the first nine months of the year, net profit totaled 416.3 billion won, down 3.6% from 431.7 billion won a year earlier. Cumulative operating profit fell 4.1% to 540.2 billion won.
The group's loan assets grew 7.6% from the end of last year. Driven by lending at iM Bank and iM Capital, cumulative interest income for the nine months rose 5.6% from a year earlier.
At iM Bank, the group's core subsidiary, third-quarter net profit rose 5.1% to 115.8 billion won from 110.2 billion won a year earlier. Operating profit, however, fell 3.3% to 132.8 billion won. Nine-month net profit was 361.5 billion won, down 1.4% from the same period last year. Corporate loans increased 10.8% through the end of September, while provisions for credit losses fell 11.8%.
Among non-banking units, iM Capital posted nine-month net profit of 56.5 billion won, up 20% from a year earlier. Over the same period, iM Securities earned 72.2 billion won, up 10.4%, and iM Life recorded 11.2 billion won.
The group's common equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio stood at 12.39%, up 0.12 percentage point from the previous quarter and its highest level on record. The ratio of substandard-or-below loans was 1.18% for the group and 0.77% for iM Bank. Credit cost ratios were 0.48% and 0.40%, respectively.
iM Financial Group also completed a 30 billion won share buyback. The shares, equivalent to 1.1% of total outstanding stock, will be fully retired within one month.