[Market Highlight] KB Financial Group Rises Over 2% on 850 Billion Won Treasury Share Cancellation Plan

On July 25, KB Financial Group showed strong performance in early trading. This comes as the company reported record-high net profit for the second quarter and announced a plan to cancel treasury shares worth 850 billion won.

As of 9:32 a.m. on this day, KB Financial Group was trading at 120,300 won, up 3,100 won (2.65%) from the previous trading day.

KB Financial Group announced the previous day through a public disclosure that its net profit attributable to controlling interests for the second quarter was tallied at 1.7384 trillion won. This marks the highest quarterly net profit in the company’s history.

The cumulative net profit for the first half of the year reached 3.4357 trillion won, up 23.8% from 2.7744 trillion won in the same period last year.

In addition, KB Financial Group announced a treasury stock buyback and cancellation plan worth 850 billion won, far exceeding market expectations of 700 billion won.

Jung Joonseop, a researcher at NH Investment & Securities, explained, "In the case of the 850 billion won treasury stock buyback and cancellation, the total annual shareholder return rate based on the 2025 earnings outlook is expected to reach 53%. Furthermore, there is also a possibility of benefiting from the separate taxation of dividend income through an increased proportion of dividends in shareholder returns going forward."