KEPCO Q2 net drops 80% on increased costs

Korea Electric Power Corp., a major public utility firm in South Korea, said Monday that its net profit dropped almost 80 percent in the second quarter of the year from a year earlier due to increased fuel costs.

Net profit reached 359 billion won ($318 million) on a consolidated basis in the April-June period, compared to a profit of 1.77 trillion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Operating income also sank 69 percent on-year to 847 billion won, with sales also down 2.6 percent to 12.93 trillion won over the cited period.

In the first six months of the year, the utility firm posted an operating income of 2.3 trillion won, down 63.4 percent from a year earlier, and sales declined 3.1 percent on-year to reach 28.07 trillion won.

Its net profit also plummeted 68 percent on-year to 1.26 trillion won in the January-June period, it said.

Last year, the company, widely known as KEPCO, posted a record high of 12 trillion won in operating profit, with its full-year revenue growing 2.1 percent to 60.1 trillion won. (Yonhap)