South Korea’s state-run Korea Development Bank (KDB) said Wednesday its first-half earnings more than doubled from a year earlier on commission income from its investment banking business.

Net income came to 1.02 trillion won ($972.7 million) in the January-June period, up 148.6 percent from the previous year, said the bank, an affiliate of KDB Financial Group Inc. Its operating profit jumped 106.3 percent on-year to 1.29 trillion won.

The state-run bank said the non-interest commission income rose 44.7 percent to 359.1 billion won as it earned higher commission income from its investment banking business by handling project financing projects and takeover deals.

The government, which owns 100 percent of the group, should start to reduce its stake no later than May 2014 under the current blueprint for the KDB’s privatization. The group will seek to list its shares on the Seoul bourse this year and on foreign stock markets in 2012. 

(Yonhap News)