KEPCO's Operating Losses of 34 Trillion Won Last Year... Samsung Electronics Accounts for a Quarter of Listed Companies' Operating Profit

CXO Research Institute Analyzes Operating and Net Profit of Top 1000 Listed Companies
Last Year's Operating Profit 106 Trillion Won... Down 27% YoY
Samsung Electronics Down 21% to 25 Trillion Won... Share 23.8%

Last year, Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) reported an operating loss of over 33 trillion won. This accounted for 86% of the 39 trillion won decrease in operating profit among the top 1,000 listed companies in Korea by domestic sales. Although Samsung Electronics also saw its operating profit decline by about 20% last year, its share of operating profit accounted for one-quarter of that of the top 1,000 listed companies.

The Korea CXO Research Institute, specializing in corporate analysis, announced the results of its "Operating Profit and Net Profit Status Analysis of the Top 1,000 Listed Companies by Sales" on the 29th. The analysis was based on each company's individual (separate) financial statements.

Employees entering and exiting the lobby of the Korea Electric Power Corporation headquarters in Bitgaram Innovation City, Naju-si, Jeollanam-do.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

The investigation revealed that the operating profit of the top 1,000 listed companies last year was 106.1725 trillion won, a 27% (39.3524 trillion won) decrease from 2021 (145.5249 trillion won). Excluding KEPCO, the operating profit decline rate among the remaining 999 listed companies was 8.4%. The overall operating profit decline rate increased by 18.6 percentage points solely due to KEPCO.

The operating profit margin (operating profit relative to sales) of the top 1,000 listed companies was 6.1%, down 2.3 percentage points from 8.4% the previous year. The operating profit margin of these companies had risen consecutively for three years from 2019 to 2021 but fell last year.

KEPCO's operating loss last year was 33.9085 trillion won, a 356.6% increase compared to 7.4255 trillion won in 2021. KEPCO's operating loss exceeded the combined operating profits of Samsung Electronics (25.3193 trillion won) and SK Hynix (7.6609 trillion won).

View of Samsung Electronics Seocho Building in Seoul. [Image source=Yonhap News]

Samsung Electronics ranked first with an operating profit of 25.3193 trillion won last year, down 20.9% from 31.9931 trillion won in 2021. Samsung Electronics' share of operating profit among the top 1,000 companies was 23.8%, up 1.8 percentage points from 22% the previous year. In 2001, Samsung Electronics' share was 6.3%. It peaked at 31.6% in 2018 during the semiconductor boom and has maintained a 20% range for three consecutive years since 2020.

Last year, 564 companies saw an increase or a turnaround to profit in operating profit, accounting for 56.4% of the total. Only 99 companies (9.9%) reported operating losses, down 11.6% (13 companies) from 112 companies in 2021. The number of companies joining the 1 trillion won operating profit club increased by two to 30 from 28 the previous year. Seven companies newly joined, while five dropped out. The new entrants were Hyundai Motor Company (661.6 billion won → 2.8285 trillion won), Hyundai Glovis (894.5 billion won → 1.5957 trillion won), Woori Financial Group (590.5 billion won → 1.1856 trillion won), SK Group (830.1 billion won → 1.1086 trillion won), LG Uplus (937.9 billion won → 1.0498 trillion won), Meritz Securities (860.4 billion won → 1.0253 trillion won), and Samsung SDI (587.6 billion won → 1.0108 trillion won).

Five companies recorded operating profits exceeding 1 trillion won. They were HMM (2.563 trillion won), Hyundai Motor Company (2.1669 trillion won), Korean Air (1.4192 trillion won), S-Oil (1.2638 trillion won), and Korea Gas Corporation (1.0139 trillion won). Hyundai Motor Company’s operating profit growth rate was 327.5%, and Korea Gas Corporation’s was 101.2%.

Last year, the net profit of the top 1,000 listed companies was 87.8376 trillion won, a 30.9% (39.3085 trillion won) decrease from 127.1461 trillion won the previous year. The net profit margin (net profit relative to sales) was 5.1%, down 2.2 percentage points from 7.3% the previous year. The number of companies in the 1 trillion won net profit club remained the same at 21. New entrants included Hyundai Motor Company (645.5 billion won → 3.7019 trillion won), Korean Air (638.6 billion won → 1.7796 trillion won), Kakao (506.6 billion won → 1.6173 trillion won), Woori Financial Group (594.8 billion won → 1.1832 trillion won), Hyundai Glovis (630.2 billion won → 1.2094 trillion won), and Hanwha Solutions (547.4 billion won → 1.0593 trillion won).

The company with the largest increase in net profit last year was HMM. Its net profit rose 87.7% (4.6943 trillion won) to 10.0478 trillion won from 5.3535 trillion won the previous year. HMM ranked second in both operating profit and net profit last year. Oil Sun, director of the CXO Research Institute, said, "Operating profit among the top 1,000 listed companies is expected to decrease by 15-20% this year compared to last year," adding, "It remains to be seen whether Samsung Electronics can maintain its position as the top company in operating profit."

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