PER, EPS, PBR and BPS are calculated in-house from the last 4 quarters (2025Q3–2026Q2) · Dividend yield is based on ₩770 per share · Prices as of the 2026-10-02 close
Pureun Savings Bank, the only listed savings bank on KOSDAQ, posted a sharp earnings rebound in 2025, but quarterly swings remain wide and asset quality indicators still carry management burdens.
It is the only KOSDAQ-listed savings bank, with a loan portfolio centered on corporate lending.
Annual operating profit and owner net income declined for three straight years from 2022-2024 before rebounding sharply in 2025.
Over the latest four quarters (Q3 2025-Q2 2026), earnings swung widely, including an operating loss in Q1 2026.
Industry-wide net income surged in H1 2026, but delinquency ratios ticked up slightly, making a full recovery premature to call.
The substandard-and-below loan ratio rose from the prior quarter at fiscal year-end 2025, keeping asset quality management as an ongoing task.
Pureun Savings Bank Co., Ltd. was established on June 17, 1971, registered as an over-the-counter issue on the stock exchange on November 30, 1993, and listed its shares on KOSDAQ on October 24, 1996.
Its corporate name was later changed through Sajo Mutual Credit, Pureun Mutual Credit, and Pureun Mutual Savings Bank before becoming the current Pureun Savings Bank Co., Ltd. on March 26, 2025.
The company operates a savings bank business under the Mutual Savings Banks Act, handling deposit products such as ordinary, time, and installment deposits and loan products including discounted notes, deposit-secured loans, and general-purpose loans, alongside ancillary services such as credit-card issuance agency, gift-certificate sales agency, and internet banking.
Its loan portfolio is weighted toward corporate lending rather than household loans.
The controlling shareholder, holding a 17.2% stake, is Ju Sin-hong, CEO of Pureun Partners Asset Management, who is classified as connected to the broader LG-affiliated family as a grandson of the late E1 Corporation honorary chairman Koo Pyung-hoi.
As loan business has contracted in recent years, the trend of redirecting surplus capital into listed equity investments has become more pronounced.
The company has indeed acquired minority stakes for simple-investment purposes in a range of listed companies including HDC, Sanil Electric, Samsung SDS, Shift Up, Comico, and Poongsan. Beyond individual stocks, it also allocates capital through commitments to multiple private equity funds.
Competitively, while smaller in asset size than large savings banks such as SBI, Welcome, OK, Aju, and Korea Investment, the company's BIS capital ratio has reportedly stayed above these top-five peers.
| Quarter | Revenue | Operating profit | Op. margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025Q2 | — | ₩13.2B | — |
| 2025Q3 | — | ₩5.4B | — |
| 2025Q4 | — | ₩900M | — |
| 2026Q1 | — | -₩4B | — |
| 2026Q2 | — | ₩1.3B | — |
| Year | Revenue | Operating profit | Net income (parent) | Op. margin | ROE | Debt-to-equity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | — | ₩26.3B | ₩20.1B | — | 6.5% | 355.3% |
| 2023 | — | ₩9B | ₩15.8B | — | 5.0% | 354.5% |
| 2024 | — | ₩6.8B | ₩7B | — | 2.3% | 330.9% |
| 2025 | — | ₩16.9B | ₩19.9B | — | 6.2% | 386.0% |
Consolidated basis (financial statements including subsidiaries) · Final figures from DART filings · Net income attributable to owners of the parent · Data as of 2026-09-04
On a consolidated basis, operating profit fell for three straight years from KRW 26.3 billion in 2022 to KRW 9.0 billion in 2023 and KRW 6.8 billion in 2024, before rebounding sharply to KRW 16.9 billion in 2025.
Owner net income followed a similar path, declining from KRW 20.1 billion to KRW 15.8 billion to KRW 7.0 billion, then recovering to KRW 19.9 billion in 2025, close to the 2022 level.
Equity stayed roughly flat between KRW 309.4 billion (2022) and KRW 307.6 billion (2024) before rising to KRW 320.5 billion in 2025, while the debt ratio climbed from 330.9% in 2024 to 386.0% in 2025.
Operating cash flow flipped direction each year: an inflow of KRW 23.9 billion in 2023, an outflow of KRW 11.9 billion in 2024, and an inflow of KRW 18.0 billion in 2025. Quarterly patterns show even sharper swings.
After a strong Q2 2025 with operating profit of KRW 13.2 billion and net income of KRW 12.2 billion, earnings shrank quickly to KRW 5.4 billion/KRW 6.4 billion in Q3 and KRW 0.9 billion/KRW 3.4 billion in Q4, before turning into an operating loss of KRW 4.0 billion and a net loss of KRW 0.8 billion in Q1 2026.
Q2 2026 improved to a modest operating profit of KRW 1.3 billion and net income of KRW 4.9 billion, but the wide gap between operating profit and net income suggests non-operating items had a substantial effect on net income relative to core lending and deposit-taking income.
Indeed, on a standalone-basis disclosure, Q1 2026 revenue rose 24.3% year over year while the operating loss widened 61.0% and the net loss narrowed 63.9%.
This was attributed to higher operating revenue from interest income and securities valuation/disposal gains, offset by a wider operating loss driven by expanded loan-loss provisioning and a rising substandard-and-below loan ratio.
According to the Financial Supervisory Service's preliminary H1 2026 operating results for savings banks and mutual finance cooperatives, the savings bank industry's net income rose to KRW 765.8 billion in H1 2026, up KRW 508.8 billion year over year, widening its profit margin.
This was mainly driven by increased securities-related gains (up KRW 401.2 billion) and lower credit costs from reduced non-performing loans (down KRW 260.8 billion), while core interest income rose only KRW 25.4 billion.
Still, the delinquency ratio rose to 6.26%, up 0.22 percentage points from year-end, with the corporate loan delinquency ratio climbing to 8.38%. The substandard-and-below loan ratio fell to 8.16%, down 0.27 percentage points from year-end.
NICE Investors Service noted that while the savings bank industry emerged from two consecutive years of losses into profit, a significant portion of real estate project-financing bad debt remains embedded in the sector via normalization fund beneficiary certificates.
Given savings banks' short deposit maturities, rate increases raise funding costs first while loan-rate repricing lags, raising concerns that the recently recovered net interest margin could weaken again.
Regulators plan to gradually raise capital-ratio requirements relative to project-financing costs and tighten large-exposure and sector-wide real estate PF lending limits, making aggressive expansion of PF exposure difficult for savings banks going forward.
Against this backdrop, Pureun Savings Bank's substandard-and-below loan ratio stood at 9.73% at fiscal year-end 2025, up 1.56 percentage points from the prior quarter, above the industry average, and Korea Ratings assigned a BBB+ issuer credit rating on August 29, 2025, valid through August 29, 2026.
A company representative previously said the firm had worked internally to reduce substandard-and-below loans and would continue its asset-quality management stance going forward.
Still, the fact that the substandard-and-below loan ratio rose rather than fell from the prior quarter at fiscal year-end 2025 suggests this management stance has not yet translated into a clear improvement.
Industry-wide, regulators plan to overhaul rules by gradually raising capital-ratio requirements relative to project-financing costs, meaning an environment unfavorable to aggressive loan-book expansion is likely to persist for savings banks.
The Financial Supervisory Service also continues to direct savings banks to dispose of bad assets through auctions and voluntary sales while building sufficient loan-loss reserves and capital to bolster loss-absorption capacity in the second half.
Against this backdrop, how much of the company's future earnings will continue to come from its equity-investment strategy of redeploying capital freed up by a shrinking loan book, into listed stocks and private equity funds, remains a point to watch.
The company changed its corporate name to the current Pureun Savings Bank Co., Ltd. on March 26, 2025, and maintains its head office in Seocho-gu, Seoul, along with branches in Jongno, Gangnam, Guro, and Mapo.
On the credit-rating front, the BBB+ rating assigned by Korea Ratings is valid through August 29, 2026, so the outcome of the next regular review could affect future funding conditions.
The share price tends to trade at a discount to net asset value, with the price-to-book ratio staying below the 1x mark.
On the earnings side, annual results declined for three straight years after 2022 before rebounding sharply in 2025, but across the latest four quarters (Q3 2025-Q2 2026) profit shrank quickly, flipped into a loss in Q1 2026, and then returned to a modest profit in Q2, meaning quarterly earnings direction has yet to settle into a clear pattern.
This volatility suggests that quarterly dispersion needs to be considered alongside annual figures rather than relying on annual numbers alone.
On the dividend side, the company has a history of keeping its per-share dividend unchanged from the prior year even during periods when net income fell sharply, making dividend-policy variability relatively low compared with earnings variability.
That said, this also meant the payout ratio (dividends relative to net income) rose sharply in years when profit fell steeply, which is worth factoring in as well.
PER, EPS, PBR and BPS are all calculated in-house (the same method as Naver and Toss) · Dividend yield = cash dividend per share from DART filings (supplemented by KRX) ÷ current price · As of 2026-09-04
The company's BIS capital ratio has reportedly stayed above large peers such as SBI, Welcome, OK, Aju, and Korea Investment savings banks on a historical basis. Total equity also expanded gradually, from KRW 309.4 billion in 2022 to KRW 320.5 billion in 2025. This relatively thick capital cushion could provide a buffer for absorbing losses if credit costs rise.
Both operating profit and owner net income declined for three straight years after 2022 before rebounding sharply in 2025 to KRW 16.9 billion and KRW 19.9 billion, respectively, approaching the 2022 levels of KRW 26.3 billion and KRW 20.1 billion. The halt of the three-year decline can be read as a positive signal. Operating cash flow also turned to an inflow of KRW 18.0 billion in 2025 from an outflow the prior year.
The company has a track record of keeping its per-share dividend unchanged from the prior year even during periods when net income declined sharply. This consistency in dividend policy, separate from earnings volatility, has provided a degree of predictability from a shareholder-return standpoint.
Loan balances declined from KRW 998.2 billion in 2023 to KRW 918.6 billion in 2024. This is not unrelated to the broader industry-wide difficulty in loan origination. A continued shrinking loan book could also constrain growth in interest-income-driven core earnings.
After a strong operating profit of KRW 13.2 billion in Q2 2025, results fell quickly to KRW 5.4 billion in Q3 and KRW 0.9 billion in Q4, before turning into an operating loss of KRW 4.0 billion in Q1 2026. Q2 2026 returned to a small profit of KRW 1.3 billion, but the level remains low.
The wide gap between operating profit and net income could raise questions about the stability of core lending and deposit-taking profitability.
The industry-wide delinquency ratio rose slightly to 6.26% from year-end, with corporate loan delinquency climbing to 8.38%. Analysts have also noted that a meaningful portion of real estate project-financing bad debt remains embedded in the sector via normalization fund beneficiary certificates.
The company's own substandard-and-below loan ratio also rose from the prior quarter at fiscal year-end 2025, illustrating how sector-wide asset quality pressure can feed through to individual company results.
The substandard-and-below loan ratio stood at 9.73% at fiscal year-end 2025, up 1.56 percentage points from the prior quarter. Rising non-performing loans can increase provisioning burdens with a direct impact on earnings.
Sector-wide delinquency also shows signs of rebounding again, so further asset quality deterioration cannot be ruled out.
In recent quarters, net income has repeatedly exceeded operating profit, suggesting non-operating items such as securities-related gains have had a substantial effect on earnings.
The company's pattern of short-term trading across numerous listed equity stakes has not produced any standout winning positions, based on available information. If equity market volatility increases, this earnings composition could reduce the predictability of results.
The controlling shareholder is reportedly linked by family ties to a specific business group, which could keep regulatory and market attention on inter-affiliate fund flows and transactions.
At the same time, regulators plan to tighten capital-ratio and lending-limit requirements related to real estate project financing, which could constrain future business expansion. As a smaller savings bank, the relative burden of regulatory changes could also be larger.
Check the Q3 report filing for whether the operating profit turnaround holds and how loan-loss provisioning trends.
Monitor the Financial Supervisory Service's Q3 2026 savings bank operating results release for sector-wide delinquency and substandard-loan ratio trends.
Since the prior BBB+ rating's validity period (August 29, 2026) has expired, the outcome of the next regular review by Korea Ratings or other agencies should be checked.
Check the FY2026 annual results and year-end dividend disclosure to see whether dividend policy is maintained despite net income fluctuations.
Pureun Savings Bank is the only KOSDAQ-listed company in the savings bank industry, with a relatively high capital buffer and a distinctive asset-management structure that redeploys capital freed by a shrinking loan book into securities investments.
Annual results fell for three straight years after 2022 before rebounding sharply in 2025, but quarterly earnings shrank quickly after a strong Q2 2025, turned into an operating loss in Q1 2026, and returned to only a modest profit in Q2, leaving the direction still unsettled.
Industry-wide net income surged in H1 2026, but this was driven by securities gains and lower credit costs rather than core lending recovery, and delinquency ratios ticked up slightly.
The company's substandard-and-below loan ratio rose from the prior quarter at fiscal year-end 2025, suggesting asset quality management remains an ongoing burden.
Shares trade at a discount to net asset value, and the company's history of not significantly altering dividend policy even during sharp net income declines stands out as a notable feature.
However, the fact that a substantial portion of earnings comes from securities and equity-investment gains rather than core lending and deposit operations remains a factor that could amplify earnings volatility depending on market conditions.
Going forward, it will be worth tracking Q3 results, credit rating outcomes, and sector-wide delinquency trends together.
Report written 2026-09-05 · Data as of 2026-09-04
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