[Click eStock] "DGB Financial Group, Year of Performance Normalization"

Shinhan Investment Corp. forecasted on the 1st that DGB Financial Group will lead a normalization of its performance this year. The target stock price was raised from 10,500 KRW to 11,500 KRW.

Hyunwoo Park, a researcher at Shinhan Investment Corp., stated, "We expect the first quarter's net income attributable to controlling shareholders to be 150.6 billion KRW, exceeding the consensus by 14%," adding, "The stabilization of credit costs due to the absence of large additional provisions will drive the improvement in performance."

He continued, "With a management strategy focused on improving capital ratios and profitability, loan assets are expected to increase by around 0.5%," and explained, "Net interest margin will be maintained at the previous quarter's level, and the common equity tier 1 ratio is also expected to slightly improve, exceeding 11.8%." However, fee income is expected to continue to be affected by the sluggish project financing (PF) market.

Researcher Park estimated DGB Financial Group's net income attributable to controlling shareholders for this year to increase by 107.1% compared to the same period last year, reaching 445.1 billion KRW, with an ROE of 7.2%.

He added, "Based on strong performance in the first half, we expect an additional 20 billion KRW of share repurchases and cancellations in the second half," and explained, "Reflecting this, the total shareholder return ratio for this year is 35.5%."