KB Financial Group said on Jan. 23 it cancelled 8.61 million treasury shares on Jan. 15 and will complete a change listing on the Korea Exchange by the end of this month.

The company cancelled in a single batch shares it bought after a cancellation in May last year. The shares were worth about 1.2 trillion won based on the previous day’s closing price of 134,700 won and accounted for 2.3 percent of the total number of shares outstanding.

After the Securities Depository completed the share cancellation on Jan. 15, the remaining steps include registering changes to the corporate registry certificate and a change listing on the exchange. Once the procedures are completed, investors will also be able to check the reduction in total shares issued through MTS and HTS.

Share buybacks and cancellations are part of KB Financial’s mid- to long-term shareholder return policy. Based on stable capital ratios, it has pursued higher dividends while conducting buybacks and cancellations, and is focusing on improving per-share profit indicators such as EPS and BPS by reducing the number of shares in circulation.

Under its corporate value enhancement plan, KB Financial designed a framework to use all capital exceeding a 13 percent common equity tier 1 ratio at the end of the previous year for shareholder returns, without a cap. It also uses capital exceeding a 13.5 percent common equity tier 1 ratio during the year for shareholder returns. The structure pays equal quarterly dividends based on the annual total dividend amount, and the per-share dividend rises as buybacks and cancellations continue.

A KB Financial Group official said, "Despite an increase in domestic and external volatility last year, we carried out the shareholder returns promised to the market without disruption and bought back more than 15 million shares, the largest amount ever on an annual basis." The official added, "We plan to continue increasing shareholder value through ongoing share buybacks and cancellations."