Korea Gas Corporation posts W587.8b operating profit in Q3, up 51.1%

Korea Gas Corporation disclosed Thursday that its consolidated operating profit for the third quarter (July–September) reached 587.8 billion won ($440 million), a 51.1 percent increase from the same period last year, according to a regulatory filing.

Sales rose 17.8 percent year-on-year to 7.51 trillion won, while net profit surged 213.8 percent to 272.4 billion won.

For the first three quarters of this year, cumulative sales reached 26.82 trillion won, up 0.3 percent, and operating profit grew 33.5 percent to 2.17 trillion won.

The company said higher sales volumes in the first three quarters pushed revenue up 81.1 billion won from the same period last year.

Rising energy prices and higher unit selling prices drove operating profit growth in overseas operations. Combined operating profit from six major overseas sites — including those in Myanmar and Australia — jumped from 296.8 billion won in the first three quarters of last year to 740.8 billion won this year.

Operating profit from the LNG Canada project and the Mozambique Coral floating LNG liquefaction plant rose 382.2 billion won and 38.9 billion won, respectively.

Total assets fell 1.1 percent from a year earlier to 53.05 trillion won, weighed down by lower summer sales volumes and a rise in uncollected fuel-cost receivables.

Liabilities declined 3.4 percent to 41.35 trillion won, while equity climbed 8.3 percent to 11.69 trillion won, bringing the debt ratio to 354 percent — down 43 percentage points from the end of last year (397 percent).

However, uncollected receivables — effectively deferred payments arising from supplying gas below cost — continued to grow.

As of the third quarter, uncollected receivables for residential city gas use stood at 13.83 trillion won, up 288.6 billion won from the first half of this year (13.79 trillion won), while receivables for power generation use rose 142.8 billion won to 533.7 billion won.

Total uncollected receivables reached 14.65 trillion won, up 466.9 billion won from the first-half figure of 14.18 trillion won.