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(2nd LD) Lotte Chilsung Beverage-Q1 earnings
(2nd LD) Lotte Chilsung Q1 net more than doubles on higher sales
(ATTN: ADDS share price in last para)
SEOUL, May 2 (Yonhap) -- South Korean beverage giant Lotte Chilsung Beverage Co. said Monday its first-quarter earnings more than doubled on increased domestic demand and exports.
Consolidated net profit came to 37.2 billion won (US$29.4 million) in the January-March period, up 127.3 percent from a year earlier, the country's leading beverage maker said in a regulatory filing.
Its operating profit jumped 84.9 percent on-year to 59.7 billion won in the three-month period, with revenue climbing 16.2 percent to 626.3 billion won.
Lotte Chilsung's first-quarter bottom line beat market expectations. The average estimate of net profit by analysts stood at 26.1 billion won, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.
The company said sales of bottled water, carbonated drinks and energy drinks expanded at a double-digit rate, with its overall overseas shipments spiking nearly 30 percent. Yet exports to Russia fell 2 percent amid its invasion of Ukraine.
Lotte Chilsung said its liquor business division saw sales swelling 21 percent on-year to 194.2 billion won, with operating income shooting up 134 percent to 21.6 billion won.
Sales of soju, a popular Korean distilled liquor, increased nearly 20 percent in the first quarter thanks to a price markup in early March, said the major maker of beer and soju here.
Lotte Chilsung is the beverage arm of Lotte Group, the country's fifth-largest conglomerate by assets, whose business runs from retail to chemicals.
Shares in Lotte Chilsung spiked 9.89 percent to a 52-week high of 200,000 won on the Seoul bourse Monday, outperforming the broader KOSPI's 0.28 percent decline.
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