[Click eStock] "Doosan Tesna, Q1 Operating Loss Expected... Potential for Earnings Growth"

Korea Investment & Securities forecasted that Doosan Tesna will record an operating loss in the first quarter of this year. However, it also saw sufficient potential for performance improvement due to orders pursued by client companies.

Doosan Tesna recorded sales of 82.8 billion KRW and an operating loss of 1.2 billion KRW in the fourth quarter of last year. The poor performance was due to inventory adjustments of client companies' mobile product lines.

Joo Su-hyun, a researcher at Korea Investment & Securities, said, "The CIS utilization rate, which exceeded 60% every quarter in 2024, fell below 60% for the first time, and the SoC utilization rate is estimated to have dropped by 18 percentage points compared to the third quarter," adding, "Since the profitability of mobile product lines is higher than that of other product lines, profits also declined accordingly."

The deterioration in performance is expected to continue into the first quarter. Researcher Joo projected consolidated sales of 71.5 billion KRW and an operating loss of 3.5 billion KRW for the first quarter.

He diagnosed, "The utilization rate of vehicle-related products, as well as mobile product lines, also plummeted, so poor performance is expected to continue through the first quarter. Vehicle-related production is expected to recover from early March, but maintaining as high a utilization rate as before will be difficult."

However, he forecasted sufficient potential for performance improvement in the future due to additional orders from foundry clients.

Researcher Joo said, "As a leading domestic non-memory semiconductor OSAT (Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test) company, we secured 100% of the client companies' vehicle-related volume in 2024, and additional orders from clients will directly lead to performance growth," adding, "Efforts to diversify client companies are ongoing, and there is a high possibility of external growth through securing overseas clients."