Unimproved Performance
The companies listed on the KOSPI suffered a decrease in profitability and operating profits during the first quarter of this year, in spite of some quantitative growth.
The Korea Exchange and the Korea Listed Companies Association analyzed the consolidated Q1 performance of the 502 KOSPI companies settling accounts in December and announced on June 2 that their combined sales recorded a 1.19 percent growth year on year to 458.4409 trillion won (US$447.4383 billion). However, the operating profits fell 1.48 percent to 25.7976 trillion won (US$25.1785 billion). The net profits of the companies increased 4.57 percent to 19.1628 trillion won (US$18.7029 billion) and the net profit-to-sales ratio went up by 0.14 percentage points to 4.18 percent.
Samsung Electronics’ operating profits decreased by 3.31 percent from a year earlier, unlike those of Hyundai Motor Company, Kia Motors, and Hyundai Mobis. The Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) and POSCO succeeded in achieving some growth as well. The ratio of the top 10 in terms of operating profits rose from 62.69 percent to 65.58 percent during the period.
In the meantime, the combined consolidated sales and operating profits of the 666 KOSDAQ-listed companies grew 5.03 percent and 8.73 percent to 29.4109 trillion won (US$28.7050 billion) and 1.3833 trillion won (US$1.3507 billion), respectively. However, their net profits declined by 12.95 percent from a year ago to 987.8 billion won (US$964.1 million) and their net profit-to-sales ratio decreased by 0.69 percentage points to 3.36 percent, too.