Lotte Shopping profit soars 203 per cent

While revenue for its third quarter rose 2 per cent year-on-year, South Korea’s Lotte Shopping Companysaw its net profit soar 203.9 per cent to KRW78.2 billion (US$68 million).

The retail giant says these are preliminary figures yet to be independently audited.

Third-quarter revenue rose 2 per cent to KRW7.9 trillion. Domestic department stores maintained solid same-store sales growth (SSSG) of 2.2 per cent, while hypermarket SSSG faded 2.4 per cent in the face of a sluggish industry and the impact of renewal construction.

Internationally the company had strong sales growth, apart from weakness for its China hypermarkets because of competition. Department store SSSG rose 9.2 per cent while hypermarkets declined 5.1 per cent.

Lotte’s third-quarter operating profit dipped 10.1 per cent to KRW176 billion, both for department stores and hypermarkets domestically.

On the international market there was an improvement in operating loss thanks to enhanced efficiency in all stores, plus there was an increased profit contribution from its cinema and electronics businesses.

There was an increase in labour costs because of a one-off special incentive paid to all Lotte employees.