GS Holdings Corp., the holding company of South Korea’s seventh largest conglomerate GS Group, reported a 5 percent gain in operating profit for the fourth quarter and its best-ever annual performance thanks to record earnings by oil refiner GS Caltex.

The company said in regulatory filing on Thursday that its consolidated operating profit for the fourth quarter ended December rose 5.0 percent to 537.1 billion won ($491 million) from a year ago. Revenue was up 13.5 percent on year to 4.2 trillion won. Net profit slid 19.6 percent to 233.7 billion won.

GS Holdings shares ended Friday down 0.63 percent at 63,200 won.

For full 2017, both operating and net figures reached record-highs. Its operating profit jumped 18.1 percent on year to 2.07 trillion won and net income up 18.3 percent to 1.09 trillion won. Sales in the cited period expanded 20.4 percent to 16.2 trillion won from a year ago.

The company attributed its strong annual earnings to its core business unit GS Caltex which finished the year with highest-ever net profit on improved profit margin in its products. Its energy-related subsidiaries including power plant project also performed well, said a company official.

GS Caltex reported an operating profit of 628.1 billion won on revenue of 8.6 trillion won during the October-December period and GS Home Shopping 39.0 billion won in operating profit on 277.5 billion won revenue. GS Power recorded 333.0 billion won in operating profit and 2.0 trillion won in revenue for the fourth quarter.

On a consolidated basis, GS Energy’s fourth-quarter operating profit reached 412.9 billion won on revenue of 687.7 billion won and GS Retail reported 31.0 billion won in operating profit on 2.1 trillion won revenue. GS EPS posted 23.2 billion won operating profit on 246.8 billion won revenue and GS E&R 44.7 billion won operating profit on 354.8 billion won revenue. GS Global registered 6.0 billion won in operating profit and 861.9 billion won in revenue in the fourth quarter.

By Kang Doo-soon and Cho Jeehyun

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]