Huons Global Achieves Record High Sales Last Year... Operating Profit Also Grows 19%

[Asia Economy Reporter Myung-Hwan Lee] Huons Group achieved its highest-ever sales last year.

Huons Group's holding company, Huons Global, announced on the 14th that its consolidated sales for last year increased by 16% year-on-year to 673.4 billion KRW, and operating profit grew by 19% to 87.3 billion KRW. However, it recorded a net loss of 27.7 billion KRW, turning to a deficit compared to the previous year.

Huons Global explained that the record sales were due to the continuous growth of major listed subsidiaries such as Huons and Humedics, along with stable performance from unlisted subsidiaries like Huons Meditech and Huons Biopharma. The decrease in net income was also attributed to the reflection of 78 billion KRW in impairment losses on intangible assets, including goodwill evaluation of subsidiaries.

Among major subsidiaries, Huons posted provisional consolidated sales of 492.4 billion KRW last year, up 12.7% from the previous year. This is the highest annual sales ever recorded. However, operating profit decreased by 9.7% to 40.9 billion KRW, and net income fell by 18.1% to 25 billion KRW, showing a slight decline in profitability compared to the previous year. By business segment, the prescription drug division achieved sales of 213.8 billion KRW, up 9% year-on-year, and the beauty and well-being division recorded sales of 175.6 billion KRW, growing 18%.

Despite continuous sales growth, Huons explained that the decrease in operating profit was largely due to increased advertising and commission expenses related to the expansion of the health functional food business. It also reflected costs for securing mid- to long-term growth momentum, such as increased research and development (R&D) expenses to expand the pharmaceutical pipeline.

Humedics’ standalone sales last year rose 31% year-on-year to 123.2 billion KRW, and operating profit surged 124% to 27.3 billion KRW. Humedics showed balanced growth across all business areas, including aesthetics, active pharmaceutical ingredients, and contract manufacturing (CMO). In the core aesthetics business, demand for fillers and botulinum toxin increased as the operating environment recovered to pre-COVID-19 levels.

Unlisted medical device subsidiary Huons Meditech achieved sales of 62.1 billion KRW and operating profit of 9.8 billion KRW, while Huons Biopharma recorded sales of 31.6 billion KRW and operating profit of 6.2 billion KRW, showing significant growth compared to the previous year.

Huons Second Factory. / Photo by Huons

Huons Group is expanding production lines and developing various businesses to secure growth engines in the bio and healthcare sectors and to enter new markets.

To handle the increasing volume of overseas injectable exports, Huons has been investing 24.5 billion KRW since November last year to expand vial and cartridge injectable production lines at its Jecheon Plant 2. Humedics plans to enter the heparin sodium active pharmaceutical ingredient market, which currently depends on Chinese imports. Additionally, from this year, it plans to expand its new product lineup by increasing new vial injectable production lines.

Song Soo-young, CEO of Huons Global, said, "Huons Group is making efforts to expand its business in various healthcare areas to secure future growth momentum. This year, we will further expand our export base not only domestically but also in overseas markets such as the United States and Japan, laying the foundation to become a global total healthcare group."

Meanwhile, Huons Global announced that it decided to pay a year-end cash dividend of 500 KRW per common share. The total dividend amount is 6.1 billion KRW, with a dividend yield of 2.54%.