À̹ÌÁö È®´ë South Korea¡¯s largest automaker Hyundai Motor Co. reported a sharp jump in earnings for the final quarter of 2019 thanks to robust sports utility vehicle sales and favorable currency rates.
Hyundai Motor in its earnings guidance on Wednesday estimated its operating profit for the fourth quarter ended December 2019 at 1.2 trillion won ($1.03 billion), more than tripled from 378.5 billion won reported three months earlier. Against a year earlier, it was up 148.2 percent.
Sales rose 3.3 percent on quarter and 10.5 percent on year to 27.9 trillion won.
Net profit came at 851.2 billion won, jumping 84.8 percent from the previous quarter and reversed from a loss of 203.3 billion won reported a year earlier.
The company¡¯s shares soared 8.55 percent to close at 127,000 won on Wednesday in Seoul.
For full 2019, Hyundai Motor¡¯s operating profit on a consolidated basis jumped 52.1 percent to 3.7 trillion won from a year ago. Sales gained 9.3 percent on year to 105.8 trillion won, breaking the 100 trillion won mark for the first time in its history.
À̹ÌÁö È®´ë Profit beat expectations but sales came below. A market consensus compiled by local market tracker FnGuide projected the company would record an operating profit of 3.5 trillion won on sales of 1.97 trillion won for the whole of 2019.
A Hyundai Motor official said new car models including large SUV Palisade and flagship sedan The New Grandeur were well received by consumers, while its bottom-line improved thanks to a fall in marketing expenses and favorable currency exchange rates.
In the October-December period, Hyundai Motor sold 1,196,000 cars worldwide, down 2.5 percent on year. Sales in Korea rose 0.4 percent but overseas sales slipped 2.9 percent.
For full 2019, the company sold a total of 4,426,000 cars – 741,842 units in Korea and 3,683,686 units overseas, down 3.6 percent from a year ago. When excluding China, the automaker sold 3.76 million units, down 0.8 percent.
The automaker said it would pay out a yearly cash dividend of 3,000 won per share, the same as a year earlier.
By Cho Jeehyun
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