SEOUL, KOREA - Korea Electric Power Co. said on January 13 that its operating profit and net profit for the last year have turned to the black in six years.
As reasons for the improvement, the electric utility said it was due to the stabilizing international energy prices including coal, the two rounds of rate increase last year in January (4.0%) and November (5.4%), and its own effort to enhance the company's financial standing.
Through the company's cost-cutting effort, it could save up to 1.5 trillion won, including cost and investment (1.28 trillion won), cuts in salaries and bonuses (8.5 billion won), sell-off of subsidiaries (203.3 billion won), and disposal of unnecessary real estate properties (17.7 billion won).
A KEPCO official said, "It is meaningful in that we could stop the vicious cycle of loss for five consecutive years since 2008. The speed of financial reform will be accelerated in step with the government's policy measure to help state-run enterprises normalize their finances.
KEPCO had consistently posted positive operating profits until 2007. In 2008, however, the company took a loss of 3.66 trillion won, followed by 568.7 billion won, 1.31 trillion won, 3.30 trillion won, and 2.69 trillion won until 2012.
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