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

And the way we could do that is a steady credit cost and SG&A, strong control over G&A, and noninterest income increase, that’s the way for us to increase the ROE. You’d mentioned J.P. Morgan of U.S. For us to pay our dividends like J.P. Morgan, basically, ROE or ROA would have to rise significantly from where we are today. Our CET1 ratio target, if we meet that 13% target and as the biggest financial company, if we achieve the asset growth up to our potential, basically, our principal and discipline of paying back to the shareholders whatever is left in terms of excess capital is a strong commitment. Just want to emphasize it as well. And then you asked about how we will be paying out, in terms of our quarterly payout plan. We have no plan to change that.

Just as we’ve done in 2022, it will be done in the same manner. Third question relating to the treasury shares. We bought — we mentioned that we will buy KRW300 billion of treasury shares and immediately cancel them. If you look at treasury shares, when you purchase, the market principle is that you should cancel immediately. When we return back to our shareholders, and this will be an element that we will put a lot of interest in. And as I also previously mentioned, for shareholder return and shareholder value, returning back to shareholders is very important. But our price to book or price to earnings at this point is very much at the lower level. Under that situation, share buyback and share cancellation is something that we are planning to progressively expand going forward.

Thank you very much. Thank you for your various questions regarding dividends, and I hope the answer was sufficient.

Operator: We will take the next question from J.P. Morgan, Jihyun Cho. You’re on the line.

Jihyun Cho: Thank you very much for this opportunity for me to ask questions. And I would like to ask about provisioning for your overseas subsidiaries. And I know that related to Bukopin, probably the provision is for that. And I think you mentioned this briefly. And can you tell us about the operations? And regarding the provisioning, if it will not be burden for the future if it’s already sufficient at this level? And I know that you are working to normalize the operations of this bank. And when do you think this bank will add to your earnings to the group? Are there other overseas subsidiaries that you can tell us about that may lead to these types of provisioning or losses? Or are there any positive movements for overseas subsidiaries?

If you can answer that, it will be helpful. And in 2023 guidance, I would like to ask you questions, because looking at your book compared to your competitors, regarding your loan growth or others, it seems that it’s a bit lower. So, can you tell us about 2023 guidance, NIM and loan growth and credit cost guidance and your bottom-line, what kind of growth that you are envisaging based on your guidance for 2023?

Peter Kweon: Thank you very much. We will soon answer your question. Please hold.

Scott YH Seo: Thank you very much for you questions. And regarding Bukopin, I would like to explain a bit more about the situation. I’m the CFO, so maybe I can explain about the financials. And from KBFG, we can hear about the situation more from our CGSO, Cho Nam Hoon. Regarding Bukopin, to explain the situation, in 2018, in July, Indonesia’s mid to large bank, Bukopin shares were acquired. And in July of 2020, we had — and in September, we had third-party allotment of capital increase. So, we have about 67% of shares as of now, and we are the largest shareholder. The reason why we decided to acquire Bukopin because we paid attention to the possibility potential of Indonesia, it is because they have a very high economic growth rate.