The headquarters of NHN Corp. in Seongnam, south of Seoul (NHN)

NHN Corp., a South Korean information technology and game company, said Tuesday it turned to a net loss in the third quarter despite record sales due to an one-off factor sparked by massive payment delays by e-commerce platforms earlier this year.

The company posted a net loss of 110.3 billion won ($78.7 million) for the July-September period, turning from a profit of 8 billion won a year earlier, according to its regulatory filing.

It also swung to an operating loss of 113.4 billion won from a profit of 23.4 billion won over the same period, while its sales rose 6.4 percent to hit a quarterly high of 608.4 billion won.

The company said its net loss can be attributed to unexpected costs tied to the liquidity crisis in TMON and WeMakePrice.

Earlier this year, the two e-commerce platforms filed for rehabilitation as they failed to deliver timely payments to their vendors due to liquidity issues.

NHN said sales from its games unit rose 2.1 percent on-year to 112.5 billion won, while revenue from its payment and advertisement unit also climbed 10.3 percent to 292.6 billion won.

Its technology sales, including cloud, also increased 7.6 percent on-year to 102.7 billion won, while content sales gained 1 percent to 50.5 billion won and commerce sales added 0.5 percent to 61 billion won.

NHN plans to start global service of its social casino game Pebble City and release eight new game titles next year, including a subculture game, Abyssdia, and zombie apocalypse game, Darkest Days.

The company said it will buy back 3 percent of its total shares for stock cancellation in 2025 as part of efforts to boost its shareholder value.

It has purchased 31.1 billion won worth of its own shares this year and plans to buy an additional 10 billion won starting Tuesday. (Yonhap)