Kia Motors Q4 net nearly doubles on weaker won

(ATTN: ADDS Kia says to start mass production at its U.S. plant in December in final
three paras; EDITS lead para)
SEOUL, Jan. 22 (Yonhap) -- A weaker won currency helped Kia Motors Corp. boost
its earnings in the final quarter of 2008, with net profit nearly doubling from
the same period the year before, the company said Thursday.

Kia, an affiliate of Hyundai Motor Co., earned 74.8 billion won (US$54.8 million)
in the October-December period, compared with a profit of 37.9 billion won a year
earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.
Sales gained 7.5 percent to 5.04 trillion won, but operating profit plunged 63.3
percent from a year ago to 35.9 billion won, it said.
The fourth-quarter bottom line, however, was far below a forecast of 128 billion
won from 14 analysts polled by Yonhap Infomax, the financial news arm of Yonhap
News Agency.
The Korean won fell 32 percent against the U.S. dollar in the fourth quarter of
last year, making Kia vehicles cheaper overseas and increasing the value of
sales.
Analysts say Kia and Hyundai are better positioned to weather the crisis of the
global auto industry because they focus on cheaper and smaller cars than rivals.
For all of 2008, Kia's net profit soared more than eight times to 113.8 billion
won. Full-year sales rose 2.7 percent to 16.4 trillion won.
"Last year, Kia Motors posted profits thanks to higher sales of new cars and a
weaker won," said Lee Jong-rok, chief financial officer at Kia.
"While business conditions are expected to worsen this year, we will make utmost
efforts to turn the crisis into an opportunity," Lee said.
In a conference call, Lee said the company plans to start mass production at its
first U.S. plant in December as scheduled.
Kia began building the $1.2 billion plant in West Point, Georgia in 2006, but
local reports have speculated the company may delay the start of production
because of mounting inventories of unsold vehicles amid the global economic
downturn.
"Trial production at the Georgia plant will start in the second-half of this
year," Lee said.
(END)