KB Financial Group Inc. (NYSE:KB) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Unidentified Company Representative: I am (ph), the CFO of the bank. And for loan growth, I would like to answer your question. In Q4, for the household loans, there was KRW0.4 trillion growth — KRW0.2 trillion growth and strategically in Q4, there were securities KRW9.9 trillion growth. And for this year, I would like to comment on loan growth rate. 3% to 4% that we are estimating as an outlook, but we do have the interest rate burden we are seeing a lot of the repayment of the loans, and there is the special program loan situation and corporate loan market is stabilizing. So, we believe that large core demand will stabilize. So, we believe that going forward, the loan growth — loan book growth will be a bit lower than expected, but we will do our best to meet the real demand in the market. And we are focusing more on profitability and asset quality on high-quality loans rather than just size –growth based on size. Thank you very much.

Scott YH Seo: Just to add to that answer, for our capital management plan, I mentioned that for the asset growth, well it will follow system growth for the midterm plans. And regarding the guidance for 2023 that you asked about, well, in principle, we don’t give our net earnings guidance NP guidance, but what I can comment on is that with IFRS 17 change for accounting and when this macro situation continues and taking into account our preemptive provisioning, then 2023 earnings guidance will be quite positive. And when we have these earnings releases related to Bukopin preemptive provisioning and FLC preemptive provisioning, if excluding that, then it would have been KRW4.9 trillion of additional of these earnings. So, we believe that this will become sufficient guidance for 2023. Thank you.

Unidentified Company Representative: Thank you for that.

Operator: We will take the next question from Citi, Yafei.

Yafei Tian: Hi. Thank you for taking my questions. I have a follow-up on capital return. So, it’s really around — you mentioned that 2023 profit will still be very good and, to loan growth, it’s relatively subdued. I just wanted to (ph) those numbers together and given your CET1 ratio already ahead of a 13% target, so is it possible that the payout ratio, including buybacks, is going to be materially higher than what you have for this year, so probably somewhere around 40% or even 50% range? Thank you.

Scott YH Seo: Yes, once again, from a mid- to long-term capital management plan, we have a very detailed plan laid out. But as I mentioned before, our principle once again is not to give out a specific number in terms of the payout ratio target. But as you’ve mentioned, once we achieve the net profit target internally and once we have enough of the capital ratio, as mentioned under the mid- to long-term capital management plan, our clear principle that we shared with you previously is something that we will faithfully comply with.

Yafei Tian: Thank you very much for the answer.

Operator: We will take the next question from Hanwha Securities, Kim Do-ha. Please?

Kim Do-ha: Thank you for the opportunity. I have three questions. The first question could be a detailed question, and you mentioned towards a target and you told us about excess return — excess capital return. And I believe that it can be finalized at the end of the year. And like today, we will see the earnings finalized at the end of February, and you mentioned that you will have share buyback from tomorrow. So, do you think this will be the schedule going forward if you have the cancellation of the shares? So, after the end of the year when everything is finalized, so at the end of the financial year, so it will be included in the previous year’s shareholder return? And at the end of the year, if you did not reach 13% CET1 ratio, then it will be hard to expect your buyback?