South Korea’s SGC E&C Co. said in a regulatory filing Tuesday that its consolidated operating profit for the first quarter of 2024 was 1.2 billion won ($871,105), down 68 percent from the 3.8 billion won figure recorded during the same period a year ago.

Revenue came to 274.4 billion won in the January to March period, down 35 percent on year. The figure was 30 percent lower than the previous quarter, but operating profit turned positive.

SGC E&C has been performing well in the overseas contract market since the start of the year, securing a string of large-scale projects in Saudi Arabia, the company said in a statement. The company signed a contract worth 690 billion won with Saudi petrochemical company SEPC Co. in January 2024 and won a 250 billion won contract for an isopropyl alcohol (IPA) production facility. It also nabbed a 150 billion won redevelopment and maintenance project, bringing its new orders to more than 1 trillion won in the first quarter alone, the company said.

SGC E&C plans to expand profitability while maintaining the current positive trend in orders, while focusing on overseas markets such as Saudi Arabia and Malaysia. The company also expects that the projects it won at the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024 to begin in earnest in the second half of the year.

It added that most of the real estate project financing (PF) concerns within in the market were resolved and that the construction of sites that were bound to reflect higher commodity prices during 2022 and 2023 are also nearing completion.

“If we achieve our new order target of more than 2.4 trillion won in 2024, we will start to see profitability improvement from the end of this year and will record our highest revenue in 2025 on the back of a strong order backlog,” the company said.

By Pulse

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