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(LEAD) Woori Financial Group-Q1 earnings

(LEAD) Woori Financial reports record quarterly earnings in Q1

(ATTN: RECASTS throughout with details; CHANGES headline)

SEOUL, April 22 (Yonhap) -- Woori Financial Group Inc., a major South Korean banking group, reported record quarterly earnings in the first quarter, driven by increased interest income.

Net profit came to 917.5 billion won (US$739.6 million) in the January-March period, up 27.6 percent from a year earlier, the group said in a regulatory filing. From three months earlier, earnings soared 106 percent.

Operating profit rose 31.6 percent on-year to 1.23 trillion won and sales gained 2.9 percent to 8.97 trillion won.

The earnings exceeded market expectations. The average estimate of net profit by analysts stood at 788.9 billion won, according to the survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.

The group said interest income gained ground in line with rising market rates following the central bank's rate hikes.

Interest income rose 22.7 percent on-year to 1.99 trillion won on the back of lending growth and non-interest income rose 4.4 percent to 383.5 billion won.

In April, the Bank of Korea (BOK) raised its key interest rate by a quarter percentage point to 1.5 percent, the fourth rate increase since August last year, including the January hike, to tame inflation and curb high household debt.

Woori Bank, the group's banking unit, saw its first-quarter earnings rise 29.2 percent on-year to 764.5 billion won.

The bank's net interest margin, a key gauge of profitability, came to 1.49 percent in the first quarter, up 14 basis points from a year ago.

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