South Korean cigarette company KT&G is widely expected to see increased profitability in the fourth quarter on sales of its new e-cigarette lil here and improved overseas sales, the company said Sunday.

The firm posted higher than expected performance in the July-September period, with 1.1 trillion won in revenue, down 7.6 percent on-year.

In the cited period, its operating profit dropped 14.8 percent to 359.3 billion won, about 2.7 billion won higher than market projections, the company said.
 

KT&G anticipated its fourth-quarter performance to improve due to popularity of lil, which has sold over 1 million units in 11 months.

“Profitability of e-cigarettes looks set to reach levels equivalent to regular cigarettes. Besides performance in the Middle East, KT&G’s third-quarter performance is satisfactory,” the company said.

Normalization of shipments to the Middle East, the company’s biggest export region, is also expected to impact the company’s performance overseas.

The company saw record-high overseas sales last year at 1.4 trillion won, which amounts to 55.4 billion cigarettes, stepping closer to its vision of becoming one of the global top four cigarette companies by 2025, it added.
 
By The Korea Herald (khnews@heraldcorp.com)