(LEAD) Daewoo E&C Q4 net plunges 31 pct on delayed housing projects

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SEOUL, Jan. 31 (Yonhap) -- Daewoo Engineering & Construction Co. said Friday its fourth-quarter net profit plunged 31 percent from a year earlier due to a delay in some of its planned construction projects.

Net profit for the three months that ended Dec. 31 fell to 21.7 billion won (US$18.3 million) from 31.5 billion won the year before, the company said in a statement.

Operating profit fell 52 percent to 44.8 billion won in the fourth quarter from 93.5 billion won a year earlier. Sales rose 2.2 percent to 2.31 trillion won from 2.26 trillion won during the same period.

For the whole of 2019, net profit fell 32 percent on-year to 201.2 billion won from 297.3 billion won. Operating profit declined 42 percent to 364.1 billion won from 628.7 billion during the cited period, while sales were down 18 percent to 8.65 trillion won from 10.6 trillion won.

The country's fourth-biggest builder aims to win 12.8 trillion won worth of orders in 2020, 13.3 trillion won in 2021 and 14.4 trillion won in 2022 to achieve sales of 9.1 trillion, 10.5 trillion won and 12.5 trillion won in the respective years, the statement said.

Daewoo E&C won 10.64 trillion won worth of orders in 2019, up 9.9 percent from the previous year's 9.68 trillion won.

kyongae.choi@yna.co.kr
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