Finance

NH NongHyup Financial first-half net profit rises 9.2 percent to 1.78 trillion won

NH NongHyup Financial Group posted a record first-half net profit of 1.78 trillion won, up 9.2 percent from a year earlier, supported by growth in both interest and non-interest income. Operating profit rose 14.0 percent to 3.2 trillion won. NH Investment & Securities more than doubled profit, while bank and insurance units saw declines. Credit loss provisions and selling and administrative expenses increased.

AI & Enterprise

Alphabet revenue up 24 percent on Google Cloud; free cash flow turns negative on AI investment

Alphabet, Google’s parent, said on July 22 that second-quarter revenue rose 24 percent on the back of strong performance in its cloud business. It also said free cash flow turned negative as it continued to increase investment in AI data centres. Alphabet posted revenue of $119.8 billion, with cloud revenue at $24.8 billion and search revenue at $63.3 billion. Net profit was $112.1 billion, and the shares were little changed in after-hours trade.