On Monday, S-Oil Corp. posted a net income of 545.4 billion won (US$402.3 million) for the third quarter, a dramatic improvement from the 9.6 billion won loss reported in the same period a year prior. Operating profit for the July-September period also increased by 67.9% to 858.9 billion won, though sales were down 19.1% to 8.99 trillion won.
Despite the positive news, the company’s earnings still fell short of industry expectations. According to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency, analysts had predicted a net profit of 623.8 billion won.