In This Article:
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New CEO's fundamental competitiveness improvement and financial structure optimization leads to parallel growth of full-year revenue and operating profit
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100% total shareholder return and 12.2% ROE in 2024, Active shareholder returns of 1.1 trillion or more for 2025
SEOUL, South Korea, Feb. 6, 2025 /PRNewswire/ --
KT&G Corporation ("KT&G" or the "Company") (KRX: 033780), South Korea's leading tobacco manufacturer, announced its 2024 fourth-quarter and full-year results in an earnings report session held on the 6th of Feb., also presenting its 2025 business goals and shareholder return plans.
KT&G reported consolidated revenue of KRW 1.557 trillion and operating profit of KRW 208.5 billion in the fourth quarter, an 8.0% and 5.3% growth year on year, respectively. KT&G also reported record full-year revenue of KRW 5.91 trillion, a 0.8% growth year on year, while operating profit grew 1.5% and reached KRW 1.185 trillion.
After the new CEO, Kyung-man Bang, took office in March 2024, KT&G achieved balanced growth by increasing fundamental competitiveness and optimization of financial structure. The tobacco segment saw a revenue of KRW 3.906 trillion and operating profit of KRW 1.082 trillion, a respective YoY growth of 8.1% and 10.7%. The continued growth of global sales volume and effective pricing strategies combined led to such results.
The annual global cigarette segment sales, focused on KT&G's flagship brand ESSE, achieved a 10.3% growth YoY and an all-time high sales volume. The annual revenue also grew by 28%, resulting in historical high of KRW 1.45 trillion. Qualitative growth was realized, including 84.2% operating profit growth.
The Next Generation Product (NGP) segment continued to show growth trends, with stick sales volume going up in both domestic and global markets. In 2024, KT&G sold 6.15 billion sticks in the domestic market and 8.34 billion sticks in the global market, which is equivalent to YoY growth of 7.7% and 1.5%, respectively.
KT&G plans to continue boosting its performance in 2025 through heightened competency of its tobacco segment; increased efficiency through an economic manufacturing system; and financial optimization focusing on profitability. Accordingly, KT&G has set growth targets of 5% or higher for consolidated revenue and 6% or higher for operating profit.
Furthermore, KT&G decided to immediately cancel treasury shares worth approx. KRW 360 billion (approx. 2.5% of total issued shares). Within the year, KT&G plans to repurchase and cancel shares worth KRW 300 billion or more and utilize the funds from the liquidation of non-core assets to cancel a total of at least 4.5% of treasury stock. KT&G is planning shareholder returns of KRW 1.1 trillion or higher, which includes a KRW 600 billion dividend payout.