Public firms' 2008 earnings plunge on economic downturn

SEOUL, April 3 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's 24 major public companies saw their combined net profit plunge over 90 percent in 2008 due to a protracted economic slump and deepening financial turmoil, a government report showed Friday.

According to the report by the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, the firms'
combined net profit amounted to 331 billion won (US$248 million) last year, down
93.6 percent from a year earlier. Their combined sales, however, jumped 22.5
percent from a year earlier to 95.2 trillion won.
The profit plunge was attributed to the global economic slowdown and worsening
financial instability.
Power monopoly Korea Electric Power Corp. was among the hardest hit as
skyrocketing crude oil prices dented its profitability. The company's net loss
came to 2.9 trillion won, a turnaround from a profit of 1.5 trillion won a year
ago, the report showed.
The report comes amid government efforts to reform loss-making public firms,
which frequently come under fire for feet-dragging on reforms and using taxpayer
money to compensate for losses.
Since August of last year, the finance ministry has unveiled six reform packages
for the public sector, mostly aimed at consolidating and privatizing state-run
companies and trimming the sector's overall workforce.
The companies' combined assets, meanwhile, stood at 309.8 trillion won at the end
of last year, up 15.8 percent from a year earlier, while their aggregate debt
grew 28 percent to 177.1 trillion won, the report showed.
Of the 24 companies, 15 public firms spent 600 billion won paying dividends last
year, down 50 percent from a year ago, and the government earned 400 billion won
in dividends, according to the report.
kokobj@yna.co.kr
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