Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors and Hyundai Mobis, the major subsidiaries of Hyundai Motor Group, saw their combined sales top 200 million won last year for the first time.

Hyundai Mobis posted 38.048.8 trillion won in sales, 2.359.3 trillion won in operating profit, and 2.294.3 trillion won in net profit, the company said on Jan. 30.

The figures represent an 8.2 percent rise, a 16.5 percent surge in operating profit and a 21.5 percent jump in net profit, year-on-year, respectively.

Earlier, Hyundai Motor announced the results of the fiscal year 2019 business performance in which the automaker logged 105.790.4 trillion won in sales.

Kia Motors said the automaker chalked up 58.146 trillion won in sales. If the three companies’ sales are combined, the total will stand at 201.985.2 trillion won.

The three companies saw sales shooting up 8.5 percent year-on-year in 2019, the highest growth since 2012 when they grew 10.3 percent.

They saw their combined operating profit standing at 8.053.7 trillion won, reversing its course to growth for the first time in seven years.

The figure represented a 43.3 percent jump over 2018 when they bagged 5.604.7 trillion won in operating profit.

Hyundai Motor surpassed 100 trillion won in sales last year for the first time in the company’s history on the back of booming SUV sales, such as Tucson and Palisade, and favorable foreign exchange effects.

The automaker saw operating profit bounce back to 2 trillion won for the first time since 2018.

Provincial figures released by Hyundai Motor showed that the automaker logged 105.790.4 trillion won last year, up 9.3 percent over the previous year and 3.684.7 trillion won in operating profit, a 52 percent surge.

The rate of operating profit from sales declined since 2012, but reversed a seven-year trend last year.
Sales of SUVs, such as the new Palisade, rose, and external factors dramatically improved, influenced by the effects of a low Korean won, a Hyundai Motor official said.

The portion of Hyundai Motor’s SUVs sold last year climbed up from 35.8 percent in 2018 to 40.5 in 2019. Foreign exchange effects were estimated at around 1 trillion won.

The foreign exchange effect means how much an exporter improves in operating income compared to a rise in Korean currency against the dollar (a drop in value).

For instance, if a Genesis is exported and the foreign exchange rate shoots up 5 percent, sales denominated in Korean currency would have an effect of rising 5 percent.

But the number of units sold by Hyundai Motor plunged to 4,425,528, a 3.6 percent decline. Units sold in Korea increased 2.9 percent to 741,842, whole ones sold abroad dropped 4.8 percent to 3,683,686.

In particular, the automaker was sagging in emerging markets ― a 17.7 percent plunge in China, a 7.2 percent drop in China.

Kia Motors chalked up 58.146 trillion won in sales and 2.009.7 trillion won in operating profit last year. The figures represented a 7.3 percent surge and a 73.6 percent jump over the previous year, respectively.

The large-size SUV Telluride, which had almost 60,000 units sold in the U.S. market, contributed to leading the better performance, a Kia Motors official said.

Meanwhile, U.S. hedge fund manager Elliot Management was learned to have disposed of its stakes in subsidiaries of Hyundai Motor Group. Elliot flexed its muscle by rejecting the automotive group’s plan to restructure governance in 2018.

At that time, Elliot purchased stakes in Hyundai Motor subsidiaries worth a combined 1 trillion won. Elliot’s demand to raise dividends worth 8.3 trillion won failed to win over the hearts of investors, and the hedge fund manager apparently sold off its stakes over the losses.

Hyundai Motor President Lee Won-hee told a CEO investment event for investors last late February that he disclosed a plan to raise the rate of operating income to sales to 7 percent by 2022 with an annual average growth rate of 1 percentage point.

At that time, participants were pessimistic about the automaker’s plan, saying that they doubted how the company could achieve the goal since the rate of operating income to sales stood at 2.5 percent in 2018. Ultimately, the goal has now turned into reality.

Hyundai Motor raked in 27.868.1 trillion won in sales and 1.243.6 trillion in operating income in the 4th quarter 2019. The figures represented a 10.5 percent and a whopping 148.2 percent increase year-on-year, respectively.

Cumulatively, the automaker logged 105.790.4 trillion in sales in 2019, a 9.3 percent rise year-on-year, and 3.684.7 trillion won in operating profit, a 52 percent jump.

The rate of operating profit to sales jumped 1.0 percentage point to 3.5 percent. Hyundai Motor also chalked up a 98.5 percent jump to 3.264.8 trillion won.