GS Engineering's Q1 net drops 23 pct on unsold homes

By Nam Kwang-sik
SEOUL, April 23 (Yonhap) -- GS Engineering & Construction Co., South Korea's
second-largest builder, said Thursday its earnings fell 23 percent in the first
quarter from a year earlier due to a rising inventory of unsold apartments.
Net profit amounted to 111 billion won (US$82.5 million) in the January-March
period, compared with 144.6 billion won a year ago, GS Engineering said in a
regulatory filing.
Revenue, however, rose 47 percent on-year to 1.8 trillion won and operating
profit gained 15 percent to 118.6 billion won.
Shares of GS Engineering fell 2.88 percent to 64,100 won as of 2:02 p.m. on the
Seoul bourse.
GS Engineering said that its first-quarter new orders tumbled 77 percent to 953
billion won from 4.07 trillion won a year ago as demand for overseas industrial
plants and local housing decreased.
ksnam@yna.co.kr
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