Discount hits GS Caltex bottom line

By Oh Young-jin

GS Caltex said Friday that sales for the second quarter amounted to 12.47 trillion won with operating and net profits calculated respectively at 366.9 billion and 321.0 billion won.

Sales were up 42 percent from a year ago, with operating profit rising 35 percent. However, sales rose 7 percent compared with the previous quarter, but operating profit dipped 56 percent because of a 100-won-per-liter discount.

Exports accounted for 66 percent of total sales.

With 6.835 trillion won in the first quarter, GS Caltex exports totaled 14.845 trillion won for the first half of this year.

This compares with 19.715 trillion won registered in exports for all of last year.

The refiner accounted for 10.156 trillion won of total sales with an operating profit of 27.2 billion won, down 93 percent from the previous quarter. The reduction owed to the forced discount by the government as part of an effort to fight inflation.

Lubricants tallied 375.2 billion won with operating profit amounting to 94.8 billion, while petrochemicals recorded 1.997 trillion won with operating profit of 178.4 billion.

GS Holdings, which owns stakes in GS Caltex, GS Retail and GS Homeshopping, recorded 1.997 trillion won in sales with operating and net profit amounting to 232 billion won and 204.8 trillion won, respectively.

Compared with a year ago, sales and operating profit went up 35 and 86.2 percent respectively, but net profit dropped 47.1 percent.

Compared with the first half, sales dropped 4.2 percent; operating profit 45 percent and net profit 47.1 percent.

For the first half, GS saw sales up 43.6 percent to 4.08 trillion won from a year ago, operating profit rising 119 percent, but net profit down 3.2 percent.

“We could have seen better figures,” a GS Caltex official said, referring to the government-forced discount that directly hit its thin margin base.