Haram Young-joo, chairman of Hana Financial Group, has succeeded in being reappointed. On the 25th, Hana Financial Holdings held a regular shareholders’ meeting at its headquarters in Myeong-dong, Seoul, and agreed on the appointment of Chairman Ham as an inside director. Successfully reappointed, Chairman Ham will start his first official task by greeting customers who visited the headquarters on the same day.
Chairman Ham had already gained overwhelming support from shareholders thanks to his excellent management performance, such as placing Hana Bank as a leading bank in 2022 and 2023, and achieving the highest performance ever last year (3.7888 trillion won). Many believed that his reappointment was already decided.
In the second term of Chairman Ham, the area with the greatest expectations for Hana Financial Group is ‘Value Up’. Chairman Ham promised last month on the 27th that he would continue to expand shareholder returns to achieve a total shareholder return of 50% by 2027 to enhance shareholder value. He was the first among domestic financial group executives to set and announce specific goals.
Hana Financial’s stock price rose 30% over the past year, and the shareholder return rate, which was around 26% in 2021, rose to 38% last year.
It is expected that Chairman Ham will focus on strengthening the non-banking business of Hana Financial Group. In his New Year’s address this year, Chairman Ham emphasized the need to diversify the revenue base by expanding into non-banking sectors alongside expanding business areas. He stressed that the focus should be on strengthening the competitiveness of the non-banking sector and creating sustainable outcomes by expanding synergy between the group’s affiliates.
Hana Financial’s non-banking sector contribution was around 17% as of the third quarter last year, lagging behind KB Financial’s 44% and Shinhan Financial’s 29%. While the possibility of mergers between companies like Hana Asset Management and Hana Alternative Investment Asset Management is being discussed, there is a pointed need to strengthen the relatively weaker insurance business, which is seen as a challenge for Chairman Ham to address.
A Hana Financial representative mentioned, “Despite internal and external unstable financial markets and uncertainties, the possibility of Chairman Ham’s reappointment was high,” and added, “It seems that shareholders have decided to entrust the group management to Chairman Ham due to his excellent management achievements.”