NH农协金融上半年净利创半年度新高，NH投资证券业绩翻倍贡献主要增量

NH NongHyup Financial Group posted net profit exceeding 1.7 trillion won in the first half of this year, achieving its highest-ever half-year performance. The gain was driven by increased interest income from improvement in the bank's net interest margin (NIM), along with a sharp rise in non-interest income at its securities and asset management units, riding a stock market boom. NongHyup Financial plans to continue its growth in the second half based on the roughly 1.2 trillion won rights offering it carried out last month.
NongHyup Financial said on the 24th that its first-half net profit was 1.7791 trillion won, up 9.2% from the first half of last year. It marks the highest figure on a half-year basis.
Interest income was 4.4422 trillion won, growing 8.4% from a year earlier. The gain was largely driven by an expansion of quality assets centered on core deposits and corporate finance. In particular, corporate loans grew by a net 8.4 trillion won compared with the same period last year. In addition, backed by a proactive asset-liability management (ALM) strategy, the bank and card NIM improved to 1.74% at the end of June this year from 1.67% at the end of last year.
Non-interest income was 1.9599 trillion won, up 47.4% from a year earlier. Driven by increased brokerage revenue from more active stock market trading and expanded assets under management (AUM), fee income reached 1.6814 trillion won, up 71.2% from the same period last year. Although bond valuation losses occurred due to rising market interest rates, related income was maintained at 957.3 billion won, the same level as the previous year, through securities management and other operations.
By affiliate, NH NongHyup Bank supported the results with net profit of 1.1629 trillion won. NH Investment & Securities (005940.KS) saw net profit surge 107.5% from a year earlier to 965.2 billion won, buoyed by strong capital markets. NH-Amundi Asset Management also contributed to the group's earnings improvement, posting net profit of 69.4 billion won, up 342.7%. NongHyup Life Insurance and NongHyup Property & Casualty Insurance continued their stable performance with combined net profit of 106.8 billion won.
Profitability and soundness also remained at stable levels. Before deducting agricultural support project expenses, return on assets (ROA) was 0.78% and return on equity (ROE) was 11.79%. As of the end of the first half, the non-performing loan (NPL) ratio was 0.65% and the loan loss provision coverage ratio was 155.31%, maintaining loss absorption capacity.
Based on the 1.2 trillion won rights offering from the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation last month, NongHyup Financial injected capital into NongHyup Bank (500 billion won), NH Investment & Securities (400 billion won), and NH NongHyup Capital (100 billion won). NongHyup Financial plans to strengthen the business competitiveness of each affiliate through the capital increase and secure future growth engines at the group level.
"Despite the capital dilution effect from the rights offering at the end of June, we achieved record first-half performance," a NongHyup Financial official said. "We expect the capital increase effect to take full hold from the second half, accelerating improvement in profitability."
NongHyup Financial also plans to expand regional financial support in the second half. Its major affiliates will jointly contribute 100 billion won to establish the "NH Miso Finance Foundation" (tentative name) within the year, providing customized financing to farmers and young people returning to farming. In North Jeolla Province, it plans to launch an "NH Financial Hub" (tentative name) to strengthen financial support for agricultural life sciences, artificial intelligence (AI), and renewable energy industries.