[Click eStock] "Korean Air Expected to Miss Market Expectations for Q4 Earnings"

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jihwan] Daishin Securities maintained its investment opinion of 'Market Perform' and a target price of 23,000 KRW for Korean Air on the 5th, stating that the company’s Q4 earnings last year are expected to fall short of market expectations.

Yang Jihwan, a researcher at Daishin Securities, forecasted that Korean Air’s Q4 earnings last year would underperform both the company’s previous estimates and market expectations. The reasons cited for the weaker-than-expected performance include delayed recovery in passenger demand due to the resurgence of COVID-19 and continued sluggish performance in the hotel business segment recognized under consolidated accounting.

Researcher Yang stated, "Despite the weakness in the passenger segment, the air cargo segment is expected to see steady volume growth due to the transportation of COVID-19 test kits and vaccine raw materials."

Numerically, a large-scale profit is estimated to occur due to one-time gains. Reflecting gains from the in-flight meal and aircraft parts business segments and the sale of Wangsang Leisure Development, as well as foreign exchange gains from the strong Korean won, the Q4 net income attributable to controlling interests is analyzed to exceed 1 trillion KRW.

Researcher Yang projected, "The consolidated operating profit for Q4 2020 is expected to be 96.6 billion KRW, with sales of 1.7638 trillion KRW," adding, "in particular, net income attributable to controlling shareholders is expected to increase by 1104% year-on-year to 1.029 trillion KRW."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.