KT&G Quarterly Profit Down on Strong Won

KT&G Corp.’s second-quarter net profit fell 16 percent from a year earlier, primarily due to a strong won.

Net profit for the three months that ended in June was KRW246.4 billion ($215 million) compared with KRW293 billion in the comparable 2020 period, the company said in an earnings release.

“The won’s strength [against the U.S. dollar] drove down the dollar-denominated earnings [when converted into the local currency],” a company spokesman told the Yonhap News Agency.

Operating profit declined 16 percent to KRW330.14 billion in the second quarter from KRW394.12 billion a year ago. Sales rose 2.1 percent to KRW1.35 trillion from KRW1.32 trillion during the comparable 2020 quarter.

KT&G sold 10.34 billion cigarettes in South Korea in the first three months, 170 million fewer than a year earlier. It accounted for 64 percent of the domestic cigarette market.

Its overseas sales fell 14 percent to 11.9 billion cigarettes from a year earlier due to weaker demand from the Middle East.

KT&G has tobacco factories in South Korea, Russia, Turkey and Indonesia with a combined annual capacity that reached 13.6 billion cigarettes.