Deutsch Motors posts 85.9% jump in Q3 operating profit, cancels 1.03 million treasury shares

Deutsch Motors, a comprehensive automotive services company, said Monday its third-quarter consolidated operating profit rose 85.9 percent year-on-year to 11.8 billion won ($8.91 million). The company also held a board meeting that day and decided to cancel all of its treasury shares.

Third-quarter sales reached 690.7 billion won, up 2.3 percent from 675.5 billion won a year earlier. Pre-tax profit from continuing operations came in at 600 million won, swinging to a profit from a 2 billion won loss in the same period last year, while net profit for the period was 400 million won.

For the first nine months of this year, cumulative sales totaled 2.04 trillion won and operating profit reached 35.1 billion won, up 6.8 percent and 25.4 percent, respectively, from the same period a year ago. Cumulative net profit for the period nearly tripled, rising from 1.2 billion won to 3.6 billion won.

The company said it maintained profitability through its multi-brand portfolio and improved subsidiary earnings despite economic uncertainty and intensifying competition among imported car brands. It attributed the improvement particularly to growing sales in its BYD business as the domestic imported-car market expands with electric vehicles leading the way, alongside stable operations in its existing imported-car dealership business.

DT Networks, the subsidiary handling the BYD business, returned to profit in the first half of this year and continued to grow in the third quarter. For the first nine months of this year, it posted cumulative sales of 240.6 billion won and operating profit of 7.3 billion won.

At Monday's board meeting, Deutsch Motors decided to cancel all 1,030,223 treasury shares it holds, worth approximately 5 billion won. The move carries out the shareholder return policy outlined in the company's corporate value enhancement plan, known as a value-up plan, which the company disclosed Tuesday.

Kwon Hyeok-min, chief executive of Deutsch Motors, said the company would "complete a stable and sustainable business structure as quickly as possible within the year" and pledged to work to enhance shareholder value through improved profitability.