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

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So for the first quarter, we do think that there could be a very steep slowdown in the economy. So as a result of that, we think that maybe towards the second quarter would be the first quarter in which we would start our quarterly dividend. This again is not determined yet. But once we discuss at the BoD and finalize, that’s the general sense that we have as of now.

Operator: So due to time, I think that we can just take a couple of more questions. Shim Jong-Min from CLSA Securities. Please go ahead with your question.

Shim Jong-Min : Hello. I am Shim Jong-Min from CLSA. Thank you for the opportunity. I have two questions. The first question has to do with asset growth. You’ve mentioned that it will be managed at 4% to 5% levels. So again, in the case of loan growth, would that be lower than that, would that understanding be correct? And with regard to loan growth for next year, could you give us some more information on that? Thank you. And the second question has to do with M&A. So I know that in terms of the securities firm. If there are maybe a medium or large-sized security firm, that depending on the candidate, I note that recently, there was some small venture capital M&A strategies that made your strategy at the current time. So could you give us some more color on the M&A strategy that you have for the group? Thank you.

Unidentified Company Representative: Yes, with regards to asset growth, CFO Lee Sung-Wook will answer the question.

Sung-Wook Lee: In 2022, it was already disclosed. So the group assets overall, you can see that it’s 6% for banks to support SMEs; and for non-banks, it’s about 7.5% growth overall. And in the case of one loan, 8.5% increase for corporate and decreased 3.6% for mutual loans, there was about a 2.5% increase year-over-year. And next year, overall, I mentioned that we’ll be managing at 4% to 5% levels and based on risk-weighted assets, that’s the case. But in actuality if we look at the banks, it would be — 4% would be the stable guidance that we have because banks take on the lion share. So to recap, the one denominated loans would be about 4% increase that we’ll be seeing going forward. Thank you.

Sang-Wook Chun: I am Chun Sang-Wook, in charge of IR. Let me give you some information on the M&A possibilities. As I’ve already mentioned, with regard to our M&A principles. We have two principles. First is within the capital adequacy ratio, and it’s about finding ways to maximize shareholder returns. And of course, it’s not about — we don’t have a set scale or volume or size of the target company. But it’s about being able — that’s favorable to create synergy as a wealth management company, for instance, and there would be particularly a retail-based type of securities firm that would help us provide balanced profitability. And as mentioned, there would be within these two principles in terms of identifying the right target that befits the criteria. Thank you.

Unidentified Company Representative: So today, due to the time for additional questions, I don’t think that there are any other requests, so we will wrap up the Q&A session here. So if you do have any other questions, please do not hesitate to contact our IR team, and we will make sure to get back to you. So with this, we would like to wrap up the 2022 Woori Financial Group earnings conference call. Thank you very much.

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