Hyundai Motor: "No Issues with Electric Vehicle Strategy... Shareholder Returns Also Assured" (Comprehensive)

Targeting 300,000 Pure Electric Vehicles and 480,000 Hybrids
Confident in Cost Innovation Despite Interest Rate and Exchange Rate Burdens
Emphasizing Shareholder Returns... "Consistent Treasury Stock Cancellation Underway"

Hyundai Motor Company expressed confidence in achieving its initially set electric vehicle target of selling 2 million units by 2030. The company also stated its intention to follow through on shareholder returns, including share buybacks and cancellations, as previously announced.

On the 25th, Hyundai emphasized this during its 2023 Q4 earnings conference call. Koo Ja-yong, Executive Vice President in charge of Hyundai IR, said, "Although pure electric vehicle sales are generally slowing down, Hyundai's direction remains unchanged," adding, "We will strive to achieve the target of selling 2 million units by 2030, as announced last year."

This showed confidence that despite some fluctuations, the goal can be sufficiently achieved by 2030. EVP Koo explained, "Our forecast for this year is sales of 300,000 units, a 12% increase compared to the previous year," and added, "With hybrid demand continuing to grow, we expect to sell 480,000 units this year, accounting for 11% of total sales, which represents a 28% growth compared to last year." Through this, Hyundai anticipates that by 2030, the combined share of hybrid and electric vehicles will reach half of total vehicle sales.

He also emphasized that steady investment will continue this year. Hyundai plans to invest 12.4 trillion KRW this year, a 3.3% increase from the previous year. EVP Koo stated, "Especially for securing future technologies focused on software-defined vehicles (SDV) such as research and development (R&D), electric vehicles, Genesis, and the high-performance 'N' brand, we will invest 4.9 trillion KRW, a 19.5% increase from last year," adding, "Although there are uncertainties in the external environment such as exchange rates, interest rates, and a global economic downturn, we will continue growth this year through continuous improvement in sales mix and cost innovation."

He also expressed confidence regarding shareholder returns, maintaining a dividend payout ratio of 25%. Last year's year-end dividend was 8,400 KRW per share, with an annual dividend of 11,400 KRW, a 63% increase compared to the previous year, marking the largest scale ever. Share buybacks and cancellations will also be carried out. EVP Koo said, "We will continue the previously announced plan to cancel 1% of shares annually for three years," adding, "It is expected to cost about 400 billion KRW per 1%, and we will continue to consider share buybacks and cancellations even after three years."

Meanwhile, Hyundai recorded annual cumulative sales of 162.6636 trillion KRW and operating profit of 15.1269 trillion KRW last year, representing increases of 14.4% and 54.0% respectively compared to the previous year. It achieved the highest operating profit among domestic listed companies. Net profit was 12.2723 trillion KRW, a 53.7% increase from the previous year. The total sales volume for last year was 4,216,898 units. The sales target for this year is set at 4.24 million units.

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