Hanwha Aerospace Q1 Profit Jumps 21% on Strong Aerospace, Shipbuilding Sales

SEOUL, April 30 (Yonhap) -- Hanwha Aerospace Co., South Korea's leading defense company, said Thursday its first-quarter operating profit jumped nearly 21 percent from a year earlier on strong sales from aerospace and shipbuilding units. Its operating profit for the January-March period rose 20.6 percent on-year to 638.9 billion won (US$429.7 million) from 529.9 billion won, the company said in a regulatory filing. Net income surged 187.5 percent to 525.9 billion won, while revenue increased 4.9 percent to 5.75 trillion won. The earnings beat market expectations. The average estimate of net profit by analysts stood at 395.2 billion won, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency. The company's ground defense business posted 1.2 trillion won in sales and 208.7 billion won in operating profit, up 5 percent and down 31 percent, respectively, from a year earlier. Its order backlog stood at an all-time high of 39.7 trillion won, driven by a deal to export the Chunmoo multiple rocket launcher system to Norway. In the aerospace division, sales shot up 25 percent on-year to 661.2 billion won and operating profit shot up more than sixfold to 22.6 billion won in the first quarter on increased military orders. Its shipbuilding subsidiary, Hanwha Ocean Co., logged 3.2 trillion won in sales, up 2 percent from a year ago, and 441.1 billion won in operating profit, up 71 percent, driven by increasing sales of higher-value vessels and a weaker local currency. "We continued solid growth on favorable performance by the aerospace business and Hanwha Ocean," a company official said. "We will maximize shareholder value through consistent orders."