[Special Stock] 'Surprise Earnings' AmorePacific Soars 8% on Reopening Expectations

[Asia Economy Reporter Ji Yeon-jin] Amorepacific's operating profit turned positive last year, causing its stock price to surge more than 8% in the stock market on the 10th.

As of 2:16 PM on the same day, Amorepacific was trading at 177,000 KRW, up 8.26% (13,500 KRW) from the previous day.

The stock price appears to have risen due to significantly improved performance last year and expectations that the company will benefit and see further growth as the economy normalizes following the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Earlier, Yuanta Securities reported that Amorepacific's sales in the fourth quarter increased by 15% year-on-year to 1.3 trillion KRW, and operating profit turned positive to 25.6 billion KRW. Excluding one-time salary-related expenses, this figure exceeded consensus estimates by 46%.

This was due to the effects of structural improvements from domestic duty-free and digital expansion, as well as fixed cost reductions. The company recorded a net loss of 54.4 billion KRW, influenced by impairment losses of 44 billion KRW from the closure of domestic and overseas directly operated stores.

Park Eun-jung, a researcher at Yuanta Securities, said, "This performance highlights domestic structural improvements through digital transformation and brand strengthening," adding, "China is also expected to see structural improvements in 2022 as Innisfree accelerates its restructuring."

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