GS Engineering & Construction said Wednesday that its first-quarter pretax profit recorded 311 billion won ($288 million), a 561 percent increase year-on-year.

The company said its sales came to 3.1 trillion won, up by 15.8 percent on-year. With operating profit of 390 billion won, its pretax profit recorded 311 billion won. Both figures are the highest in the company’s history, it said.Some 1.9 trillion won came from obtaining new orders in the first quarter. 

For 16 consecutive quarters, GS E&C recorded a continuous profit.

To keep up the company’s upturn, GS E&C said it aims to achieve 12 trillion won in sales and 11.4 trillion won from obtaining orders by the end of this year. 

“We forecast the profitability of our business to continue, since our overseas plant business is seeing no additional losses,” said an official from GS E&C. 

“Given that the first quarter is the off-season for construction and engineering companies in the domestic market, GS E&C’s stable business performance will continue and achieve at least 150 billion to 220 billion won of operating profit per quarter over the next three years,” said Park Hyung-ryeol, a researcher at Meritz Securities. 

By Kim Da-sol (ddd@heraldcorp.com)