Hyundai Motor Q2 net down 11 pct, misses fcast

Enlarge Photo A South Korean walks past the logo of Hyundai Motor at its headquarters in Seoul...

Thu, Jul 24 10:38 AM

SEOUL (Reuters) - Hyundai Motor Co, South Korea's top auto maker, posted a surprise 10.6 percent fall in quarterly net profit as a weaker won currency boosted value of foreign currency debts.

Hyundai, the world's No.5 car maker along with its affiliate Kia Motors Corp, reported 546.9 billion won ($542 million) in net profit during the second quarter ended June 30 against a 632.2 billion won forecast by 11 analysts in a Reuters poll.

That compares with a 611.5 billion won profit a year earlier and a 392.7 billion won profit in the first quarter of 2008.

Hyundai posted a 663 billion won in operating profit during the April-June period, below a 694 billion won profit forecast.

That compared to a 623 billion won profit a year ago and 529 won profit in the first quarter of 2008.

Strong demand for smaller cars such as Hyundai's Elantra is expected to boost full year profits and help the company ride out the impacts of higher raw material prices and slowing higher-margin domestic demand in the second half.

Reflecting the concerns over the second half, shares in Hyundai, valued at around $16.3 billion, dropped 10 percent in the April-June period, underperforming an 1.7 percent fall in the wider market.

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