Operating Profit Drops 31.2%
Korea Exchange announced on May 19 that the Q1 sales of 592 KOSPI-listed non-financial companies with a fiscal year end of Dec. 31 totaled 495 trillion won on a consolidated basis, up 0.87 percent from a year ago, and their operating and net profits dropped 31.2 percent and 47.8 percent to 19 trillion won and 11 trillion won, respectively.
Their profitability and soundness deteriorated at the same time. For example, their operating profit-to-sales ratio fell 1.05 percentage points year on year to 4.75 percent and debt ratio rose 4.58 percentage points to 117.54 percent in three months.
With Samsung Electronics excluded, their operating and net profits dropped 40.98 percent and 61.79 percent to 13 trillion won and 6.1 trillion won, respectively.
KOSDAQ-listed companies took a direct hit from COVID-19, too. Although the Q1 sales of 944 with the same fiscal year end increased 6.71 percent year on year to 47 trillion won, their operating profit fell 22.88 percent to 1,763.6 billion won and net profit decreased 35.17 percent to 1,136.9 billion won. A total of 380 out of the 944 companies were in the red in Q1 this year.
The 944 companies’ operating profit-to-sales ratio fell 1.43 percentage points year on year to 3.74 percent. Their debt ratio, 118.1 percent, increased 10.18 percentage points in three months.