Hanwha Aerospace posts $65M operating profit

Hanwha Aerospace posted a 4.7 percent drop in operating profit to 83.1 billion won ($65 million), missing the analyst forecast of 116.5 billion won, due to the base effect from last year’s one-off gain from the aerospace segment.

Hanwha Aerospace’s multipurpose unmanned ground vehicle Arion-SMET, an acronym for autonomous and robotic systems for intelligent off-road navigation-small multipurpose equipment transport [HANWHA AEROSPACE]

Hanwha Aerospace posted a 4.7 percent drop in operating profit to 83.1 billion won ($65 million), missing the analyst forecast of 116.5 billion won, due to the base effect from last year’s one-off gain from the aerospace segment.

Revenue rose 23.4 percent to 1.80 trillion won, also below the forecasted 1.95 trillion won.

Net profit jumped 5,171 percent from the same period last year to 308.5 billion won, due to a one-off gain on the valuation of derivatives worth some 300 billion won associated with Hanwha Aerospace's acquisition of Hanwha Ocean, which has been rebranded from Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering.

Hanwha Aerospace’s land systems segment logged sales of 600.1 billion won, an 80 percent jump on year. Operating profit increased 58 percent to 23.8 billion won, mainly due to earnings for the munitions business, separated from Hanwha Corporation, and added after the merger on April 1.

The aerospace division reported 401.9 billion won in revenue, up 10 percent on year, and operating profit of 5.5 billion won, down 76 percent on year.

Hanwha Aerospace said that day that it beat Germany’s Rheinmetall to win a contract to build 129 new AS-21 Redback infantry fighting vehicles for the Australian Army. The company did not disclose the size of the deal but it is estimated to cost between 5 billion and 7 billion Australian dollars ($3.4 billion to $4.7 billion), according to Australian Defense Industry Minister Pat Conroy.

Hanwha Aerospace's share price closed at 124,300 won on Thursday, down 1.97 percent from the previous trading day.

BY SHIN HA-NEE [shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr]