Daewoo Engineering & Construction Co. (Daewoo E&C) on Tuesday reported its largest-ever operating profit for 2022 on the back of robust orders for housing and plant construction at home and abroad.

Daewoo E&C disclosed that its operating profit reached 760 billion won ($616.9 million) in 2022, up 2.9 percent from a year ago, on sales of 10.4 trillion won, up 20 percent. Net profit also increased 4.8 percent to 508 billion won in 2022.

In the fourth quarter alone, Daewoo E&C posted an operating profit of 246.8 billion won, up nearly 27 percent compared with a market consensus compiled by financial data tracker FnGuide.

Daewoo E&C’s housing construction business accounted for the largest 61 percent of entire revenue in 2022, followed by civil works (18.2 percent) and plants (13.9 percent).

New orders amounted to 14.1 trillion won in 2022, up 27.5 percent from year earlier, of which domestic orders reached 12.4 trillion won and overseas orders 1.8 trillion won. The company’s order backlog rose 8.3 percent to 45.05 trillion won.

Nearly 40 percent of the new orders was from the Middle East, followed by Africa (33.2 percent), Asia (27.8 percent), and South America (0.2 percent). The orders were mainly of civil works and plant construction.

Daewoo E&C proposed a target of achieving 12.3 trillion won in new orders this year and 10.9 trillion won in revenue.

Analysts attributed strong fourth quarter revenue to strong performance by its entity in Vietnam that raised 400 billion won in sales.

LG Household & Healthcare Co. in the meantime saw its operating profit decline 46.5 percent on year to 128.9 billion won in the fourth quarter. Revenue also fell 10.6 percent to 1.8 trillion won.

For the full year, sales and operating profit also plunged 11.2 percent to 7.2 trillion won and 44.9 percent to 711.1 billion won, respectively.

The poor earnings are blamed at weak spending due to the sluggish economy at home and abroad. Its beauty segment has been affected by lower sales in China, the company said.

Cheil Worldwide Inc. saw a 25.5 percent rise in its operating profit last year on increased ad sales. Revenue was up 27.9 percent to 4.3 trillion won.

Hyundai Autoever Corp. saw increases in both its sales and operating profits for the fourth quarter, which hit 834.2 billion won and 57.9 billion won, respectively. The increases were led by the recovery of the supply chain in the automobile industry and a strong U.S. dollar last year.

By Kang Min-woo, Cha Chang-hee, Won Ho-sup and Chang Iou-chung

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