The higher marketing costs along with the decrease in export levels also reduced sales by 11 percent to 8.08 trillion won ($6.48 billion) from 9.107 trillion won ($7.31 billion). Hyundai stated net profit grew by only 10.4 percent to 1,036.8 bn won ($832 million) for the first half of 2009. Sales declined 18.5 percent to 14.1 trillion won ($11.3 billion) and operating profit fell 31.9 percent to 811 bn won ($651.2 million) for the first six months of 2009.
The South Korean automaker also reported increased marketing costs and improved foreign dealers in order to raise international brand awareness. Hyundai also mentioned the satisfying Q2 results were achieved thanks to shareholding gains from affiliates in China and India.
Another positive thing for the company were the tax incentives adopted by many governments around the world, especially in the domestic car market.
The company managed to sell 1,403,931 units in the first half, out of which 719,478 were produced in facilities from Korea and 684,453 overseas. The result however, was 5.8 percent lower than last year's same time frame.
In a car market that fell 15 percent this first half of 2009, Hyundai reached a 5 percent global market share. China was one the Hyundai's best markets, where sales grew 56 percent to a total of 257,000 units thanks to its exclusive China models.
Google News