SEOUL– Lotte Shopping Co., an affiliate of retail giant Lotte Group, said Monday it shifted to the black in the first quarter from a year earlier on equity gains and improving consumption amid eased virus curbs.
Lotte Shopping swung to a net profit of 69.13 billion won (US$54 million) in the three months ended in March from a net loss of 40.61 billion won a year ago, the company said in a statement.
“Pent-up demand from consumers helped boost the quarterly bottom line despite the spread of the omicron variant virus early this year,” the statement said.
Operating profit rose 11 percent to 68.71 billion won in the first quarter from 61.79 billion won a year earlier.
But sales fell 2.8 percent to 3.77 trillion won from 3.88 trillion won during the same period.
Lotte Shopping is the operator of South Korea’s biggest department store chain and the third-biggest discount store chain.
Source: Yonhap News Agency