S-Oil’s Q1 net more than doubles on higher oil prices, strong margins

SEOUL– S-Oil Corp. said Wednesday its first-quarter net income more than doubled from a year earlier as a rise in oil prices and strong margins helped boost its bottom line.

Net income came to 870.8 billion won (US$689.7 million) in the January-March period, compared with 344.7 billion won the previous year, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Operating income reached 1.33 trillion won, also more than doubling from 629.2 billion won, with sales coming in at 9.28 trillion won, up 73.8 percent in the same period.

The earnings beat the average market forecast of 822.2 billion won by analysts in a survey compiled by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.

The stellar performance came on the back of improved sales and inventory-related gains, backed by strong cracking margin — a key gauge of profitability — and higher oil prices, the company said in a release.

It generated 1.2 trillion won in operating profit and 7.1 trillion won in revenue for the refining sector, buoyed by a surge in inventory demand amid the supply shortage sparked by the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

Its petrochemical business posted an operating loss of 65.6 billion won, while sales reached 1.36 trillion won, due largely to a rise in raw material prices and faltering demand from China over its COVID-19 lockdown.

Operating profit from the lubricant oil division came to 195.3 billion won, with sales standing at 741.7 billion won.

S-Oil predicted that refining margins in Asia will continue to strengthen in the second quarter as demand will likely increase amid tight supply of petroleum products and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“International refining margins will continue to strengthen due to geopolitical supply disruptions of petroleum products, a gradual recovery of jet fuel demand, and a global shortage of global inventory,” the company said.

Shares in S-Oil jumped 2.44 percent to 105,000 on the Seoul bourse on Wednesday, outperforming the broader KOSPI’s 1.1 percent fall. The earnings results were released after the opening bell.

Source: Yonhap News Agency

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