Hyosung Group’s cash cow running on shaky legs

Hyosung Corp., the flagship firm and cash cow of Hyosung Group, is suffering from a continued profit slump, data suggested.

Hyosung’s net profit for 2014 came in at 184.9 billion won ($169.3 million), down 31.9 percent compared to 2010, according to data released Monday by the corporate assessment website CEO Score.

Analysts attributed Hyosung’s profit decline to the slowdown experienced across the company’s portfolio with the exception of its textiles business.

The data said Hyosung’s industrial materials business recorded an operating profit of 90.7 billion won, down 28.5 percent from four years ago, while its chemicals business showed a drop of nearly 45 percent over the same period.

The company’s trading division saw its operating profit plummet by 83 percent over the same period to come in at 4.5 billion won.

Improved performance of the company’s textiles business, however, offset the slowdown in other areas.

Over the same four-year period, the company’s textiles business saw operating profits jump by 151 percent to 366 billion won, accounting for nearly a third of the company’s operating profit for 2014.

Although Hyosung’s net profits have plunged, the figure accounted for 78.7 percent of that of the group as a whole. Last year, the combined net profits of the 28 Hyosung Group companies came in at 235 billion won.

In terms of 2014 revenues, the company recorded 8.53 trillion won, accounting for 71.5 percent of the 11.94 trillion won recorded for all Hyosung firms.

Unlike its share of the group’s net profits, however, Hyosung’s proportion of the group’s annual revenue decreased by a small margin from the 73.6 percent recorded in 2010.

While the company is the pillar that holds up the group, it has shown major cracks in the past four years.

Since raking in 271.3 billion won net profit in 2010, the company failed to break the 200 billion won mark in 2011. In 2013, the company was ordered to pay 500 billion won in fines and back-taxes, pushing the figures into the red.

By Suk Gee-hyun  (monicasuk@heraldcorp.com)