SEOUL, April 27 (Yonhap) — Kia Motors Corp., South Korea’s second-largest carmaker by sales, said Friday its first-quarter net profit plunged 44 percent from a year earlier on the strong won and weak overseas sales.
Net profit for the January-March quarter fell to 432 billion won (US$401 million) from 765.4 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a statement.
Operating profit declined 20 percent to 305.6 billion won in the first three months from 382.8 billion won a year ago. Sales were down 2.2 percent to 12.562 trillion won from 12.844 trillion won during the same period, it said.
In the first quarter, Kia sold 645,495 vehicles in global markets, up 0.2 percent from 643,944 units in the year-ago period, the statement said.
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