LIG Defense&Aerospace(079550)(LIG D&A)'s second-quarter operating profit rose to 105.7 billion won, up nearly 30% from the same period a year earlier. Export sales jumped more than 70% as revenue from the Middle East-bound "Cheongung II," including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), was fully reflected. LIG D&A currently holds an order backlog worth 25 trillion won.
On Aug. 6, LIG D&A said second-quarter operating profit rose 29.5% year over year to 105.7 billion won. Revenue increased 17.4% to 1.1101 trillion won. The operating margin came to 9.5%, up 0.9 percentage points from a year earlier. Net profit, however, fell 24.4% to 78.2 billion won from 103.5 billion won due to increased investment.
By region, exports came to 281.8 billion won, up 71.7% from 164.7 billion won a year earlier. Their share of total sales expanded to 25.4% from 17.4%. LIG D&A said "about 99 billion won was recognized from the UAE Cheongung II program, and the second-quarter revenue of 3.4 billion won from (U.S. subsidiary) Ghost Robotics was also reflected."
In domestic sales, mass production accounted for 590.6 billion won and research and development (R&D) revenue for 237.7 billion won, representing 53.2% and 21.4% of total sales, respectively. Compared with the same period last year (mass production 561.6 billion won, R&D 219.1 billion won), the scale remained similar.
By business line, revenue from the precision-guided munition (PGM) segment was 653.1 billion won, up 42.0% from the same period a year earlier. This was driven by Cheongung II exports to the UAE, as well as domestic Cheongung II mass production and heavyweight torpedo II mass production. In addition, aerospace and electronics (184.1 billion won) and ISR (125.0 billion won) sales increased 62.8% and 11.0%, respectively. Command and control (120.9 billion won) sales, however, fell 47.5%.
As of the end of the second quarter, the order backlog totaled 24.57 trillion won. Backlog for Middle East-bound Cheongung II orders to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Iraq stands at 9.89 trillion won, with domestic R&D and mass production backlogs at 4.89 trillion won and 5.63 trillion won, respectively.
An LIG D&A official said, "We recently opened a Latin America representative office in Peru and signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Babcock International Group PLC to expand global capabilities, and we are making every effort to strengthen competitiveness and ensure sustainable growth in the global export market," adding, "As part of a civilian-military technology cooperation project overseen by the Civil-Military Cooperation Promotion Agency, we have begun developing an unmanned surface vessel for maritime rescue, further expanding our business scope."