ID :
178756
Fri, 04/29/2011 - 05:57
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/178756
The shortlink copeid
Kia Motors Q1 net almost doubles on strong sales
(ATTN: UPDATES share price in 4th para; CLARIFIES details in paras 7-8; ADDS Hyundai Motor's Q1 net in last para)
SEOUL (Yonhap) - Kia Motors Corp., South Korea's second-largest automaker, said Friday that its first-quarter earnings nearly doubled to a record high on the back of brisk domestic and overseas sales.
Net profit reached 953 billion won (US$888 million) in the January-March period, compared with a profit of 499 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.
Sales jumped 37 percent on-year to a record high of 10.66 trillion won in the first quarter, and operating profit spiked 90 percent to 840 billion won over the cited period, the company said.
Shares of Kia Motors were trading at 78,400 won on the Seoul bourse as of 10:15 a.m., down 1.63 percent.
"The good business performance resulted from increased sales at home and overseas, helped by the launch of new models," Lee Jae-rok, Kia's chief financial officer, said at a conference with investors.
Kia Motors, an affiliate of industry leader Hyundai Motor Co., will seek to further increase its global sales this year by meeting diverse customer demand, he said.
The company said it sold a total of 619,089 vehicles globally in the first quarter, up 30.4 percent from a year earlier.
Its first-quarter domestic sales came to 125,000 units, accounting for 34.6 percent of total vehicle sales in South Korea and up 4.6 percentage points from a year earlier, it said.
By country, the United States remained the largest market for Kia Motors with 104,774 vehicles sold there in the January-March period. China, the world's largest and also fastest-growing market, was next with 95,451 vehicles sold there.
The record sales are likely to raise Kia Motors' global market share to over 3 percent for the first time in its history. The company's global market share had been steadily growing from 1.9 percent in 2007 to 2.1 percent in 2008, 2.6 percent in 2009 and 2.9 percent last year.
"We expect our global sales to further grow from the second quarter of the year when we will begin increasing exports of our new flagship mid-size sedan K5 (sold as the Optima in most overseas markets)," a company executive said.
Kia Motors and Hyundai Motor make up the world's fifth-largest automotive group, Hyundai Motor Group, which also has South Korea's largest auto parts maker, Hyundai Mobis Co., and dozens of other affiliates.
On Thursday, Hyundai Motor reported a 47 percent jump in its first-quarter net profit to 1.88 trillion won, helped by a popular lineup of new models which have been selling strongly in top markets such as China and the United States.
SEOUL (Yonhap) - Kia Motors Corp., South Korea's second-largest automaker, said Friday that its first-quarter earnings nearly doubled to a record high on the back of brisk domestic and overseas sales.
Net profit reached 953 billion won (US$888 million) in the January-March period, compared with a profit of 499 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.
Sales jumped 37 percent on-year to a record high of 10.66 trillion won in the first quarter, and operating profit spiked 90 percent to 840 billion won over the cited period, the company said.
Shares of Kia Motors were trading at 78,400 won on the Seoul bourse as of 10:15 a.m., down 1.63 percent.
"The good business performance resulted from increased sales at home and overseas, helped by the launch of new models," Lee Jae-rok, Kia's chief financial officer, said at a conference with investors.
Kia Motors, an affiliate of industry leader Hyundai Motor Co., will seek to further increase its global sales this year by meeting diverse customer demand, he said.
The company said it sold a total of 619,089 vehicles globally in the first quarter, up 30.4 percent from a year earlier.
Its first-quarter domestic sales came to 125,000 units, accounting for 34.6 percent of total vehicle sales in South Korea and up 4.6 percentage points from a year earlier, it said.
By country, the United States remained the largest market for Kia Motors with 104,774 vehicles sold there in the January-March period. China, the world's largest and also fastest-growing market, was next with 95,451 vehicles sold there.
The record sales are likely to raise Kia Motors' global market share to over 3 percent for the first time in its history. The company's global market share had been steadily growing from 1.9 percent in 2007 to 2.1 percent in 2008, 2.6 percent in 2009 and 2.9 percent last year.
"We expect our global sales to further grow from the second quarter of the year when we will begin increasing exports of our new flagship mid-size sedan K5 (sold as the Optima in most overseas markets)," a company executive said.
Kia Motors and Hyundai Motor make up the world's fifth-largest automotive group, Hyundai Motor Group, which also has South Korea's largest auto parts maker, Hyundai Mobis Co., and dozens of other affiliates.
On Thursday, Hyundai Motor reported a 47 percent jump in its first-quarter net profit to 1.88 trillion won, helped by a popular lineup of new models which have been selling strongly in top markets such as China and the United States.
