South Korea’s largest automaker Hyundai Motor Co. on Thursday reported a 24.1 percent on-year drop in its fourth-quarter bottom-line as its conditions worsened from the local won’s strengthening on top of drooping sales in the world’s two biggest car markets.

Hyundai Motor said in a regulatory filing that it posted an operating profit of 775.2 billion won ($728.7 million) in the fourth quarter ended December, down 24.1 percent from a year ago. Sales fell 0.2 percent to 24.5 trillion won in the same period. The top automaker’s operating margin in the October-December period slipped to the lowest-ever of 3.2 percent.

Despite disappointing results, shares of Hyundai Motor closed at 158,500 won on Thursday, up 1.28 percent or 2,000 won from the previous session.

For the whole of 2017, Hyundai Motor’s operating profit on a consolidated basis skidded 11.9 percent to 4.57 trillion won from a year ago - its worst performance since the company complied with the International Financial Reporting Standards from 2010 fiscal statements. Sales reached 96.38 trillion won, up 2.9 percent on year. The automaker’s operating profit rate dropped 0.8 percentage points to 4.7 percent over the same period, marking the lowest in seven years. It is also the first time for the rate to fall to the 4 percent range.

Hyundai Motor’s ordinary income plunged 39.3 percent on year to 4.4 trillion won last year as the result of poor performance by Beijing Hyundai Motor Co., a joint venture between Hyundai Motor and BAIC Motor Corp. in China. The Korean carmaker’s net profit also fell 20.5 percent to 4.5 trillion won last year compared to a year ago.

An unnamed official from Hyundai Motor said that its bottom line suffered from plunge in sales in China and the United States while operating costs from a stronger won and marketing expenses from heavier competition increased.

Hyundai Motor sold 4,506,527 cars - 688,939 units at home and 3,817,588 units overseas - last year, which is down 6.4 percent from a year ago. When excluding China, the automaker sold 3,692,735 cars in 2017, up 1.6 percent from a year ago.

By Lee Seung-hoon and Lee Eun-joo

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