Unicem Achieves 108.3 Billion KRW in Sales Last Year... "Strong Performance in Automotive Seat Business"

Leather specialist company Unichem announced on the 29th that it recorded consolidated sales of 108.3 billion KRW and operating profit of 2.6 billion KRW last year. While its scale increased by 8.5% compared to the previous year, operating profit decreased by 36.6%.

It achieved solid growth in scale due to an increase in automobile production, its upstream industry, and the expansion of applicable vehicle models. However, operating profit declined compared to the previous year due to an increase in non-recurring expenses.

Net loss for the period was 9.7 billion KRW, reflecting a discontinued operations loss of 10.9 billion KRW from the sale of its subsidiary Unione. The discontinued operations loss is an accounting loss that does not involve cash outflow and thus has no actual impact on the financial structure.

Unichem drastically improved its financial structure by selling its subsidiary Unione, which had a heavy financial burden due to reckless golf course business investments, in December last year. Additionally, through successful changes in corporate governance and the recruitment of industry experts, it laid the groundwork for performance improvement and a new leap forward this year.

A company official stated, "The consolidated net loss occurred due to the reflection of a one-time discontinued operations loss that does not involve cash outflow," and added, "From this year, the positive effects of the sale of subsidiary Unione will be fully reflected, completely eliminating the negative impact on performance."

He continued, "Since the management change, company-wide efforts to strengthen competitiveness and the effects of expanded sales capabilities are becoming visible, making clear performance improvement possible this year."

Meanwhile, Unichem is actively working to enhance shareholder value based on securing a stable performance foundation and improving its financial structure. At the end of last year, it decided to acquire 15 billion KRW worth of treasury shares and plans to expand shareholder return policies going forward.