South Korea’s budget carrier Jin Air Co. is valued at close to 1.4 trillion won ($1.2 billion) on strong six-month earnings ahead of its scheduled IPO on Seoul’s main bourse Kospi at the end of November.

According to sources on Monday, the market value of Jin Air, the unit of the country’s flag carrier Korean Air Lines Co. under Hanjin Group, is projected to exceed previous market estimates of 1 trillion won by a large margin on bullish six-month results driven by holiday demands that offset fewer flights to and from China amid a diplomatic row over THAAD.

Jin Air said in a regulatory filing last week that it posted 46.5 billion won in operating profit in the January-June period, up 132 percent from a year ago. Sales climbed 30 percent to 423.9 billion won. Net profit more than doubled to 33.5 billion won, close to what it earned during 2016.

The budget carrier is expected to report stronger earnings for the full year of 2017 thanks to a rise in summer travel demand in the July-September period. Some analysts say that the growth curve will be sharper, with its net income up 90 billion won this year.

When applying the 14 times price-earnings ratio (PER) of its listed peer Jeju Air Co., Jin Air is valued at some 1.2 trillion won. The figure could be higher when compared with foreign peers. Its corporate value is expected to be set between 1.2 trillion won and 1.4 trillion won even when a 20 percent discount is applied for IPO, according to analysts.

By Song Gwang-sup

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