Shareholder Value Enhancement Sincere Effort Pays Off... KB and Hana Financial Join Value-Up Program (Comprehensive)

KB Financial Group and Hana Financial Group, regarded as "value-up model students," were newly included in the Korea Value-Up (corporate value enhancement) Index on the 16th.

The Korea Exchange held the Index Operation Committee meeting on the 11th and decided through a special review of the Korea Value-Up Index components to newly include KB Financial and Hana Financial. In addition, SK Telecom, KT, Hyundai Mobis, and others were also added to the Korea Value-Up Index.

KB Financial and Hana Financial had previously announced their "Corporate Value Enhancement Plans" in October.

KB Financial stated that from 2025, surplus capital exceeding a Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio of 13% will be returned to shareholders, maintaining the total shareholder return ratio at the highest level in the industry. Specifically, surplus capital exceeding the CET1 ratio of 13% at the end of this year will be the primary source for shareholder returns in 2025, and surplus capital exceeding 13.5% during 2025 will be used in the second half of the year for share buybacks and cancellations.

Additionally, they announced a new shareholder return policy including ▲implementing equal quarterly dividends from this year ▲calculating dividends per share based on total dividend amount (approximately 300 billion KRW quarterly, 1.2 trillion KRW annually) ▲operating under the principle of maintaining or expanding an annual total dividend amount of around 1.2 trillion KRW.

The group’s board of directors and management expressed a strong will to recover undervalued stock prices and increase shareholder value, announcing a "Corporate Value Enhancement Plan" containing specific goals and implementation measures for corporate value-up.

Hana Financial set ▲shareholder return ratio ▲Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio ▲return on equity (ROE) as the three core indicators of corporate value-up, presenting three specific goals and implementation plans to improve each indicator. This aims to increase predictability of shareholder returns and gradually raise the total shareholder return ratio annually, targeting a 50% total shareholder return ratio by 2027.

In particular, after announcing the corporate value enhancement plan, Ham Young-joo, Chairman of Hana Financial Group, took his first step in November by attending a joint financial sector IR in Hong Kong to engage directly with global investors. At this event, Chairman Ham promised to actively pursue shareholder return policies aligned with global market expectations through sustainable profitability.

A Hana Financial Group official said, "The new inclusion in the Value-Up Index is a result of high recognition of Hana Financial Group’s concrete goals and practical efforts to enhance shareholder and corporate value," adding, "We will faithfully implement and steadily develop the corporate value enhancement plan."

They continued, "Going forward, we will strengthen communication with shareholders, investors, and all stakeholders to ensure the group’s value-up plan bears tangible results, leading the value-up of Korea’s financial sector."

A KB Financial official said, "Since the initial announcement of the Value-Up Index on September 24, expectations for index rebalancing have increased, and we have communicated with various stakeholders and worked harder to expand shareholder value," adding, "These efforts have been recognized by the market, as evidenced by the recent increase in shareholding by the U.S. asset management firm Capital Group, which became the second-largest shareholder, resulting in a favorable outcome of being included in the special changes to the Value-Up Index components."

They added, "Going forward, KB Financial will faithfully implement the corporate value enhancement plan as promised to shareholders and strive to become a true value-up model student without wavering."

Meanwhile, the index inclusion date is set for the 20th, increasing the total number of index components from 100 to 105.