SEOUL (Reuters) -Hyundai Motor reported a 2% rise in first-quarter operating profit on Thursday, meeting analysts’ estimates, as customers accelerated purchases ahead of U.S. tariffs and as it also benefited from a weak South Korean won.
Hyundai, which together with affiliate Kia is the world’s third-biggest automaking group by sales, booked operating profit of 3.6 trillion won ($2.52 billion) for January to March, compared with 3.56 trillion won in the same period a year earlier.
The result compared with a 3.5 trillion won LSEG SmartEstimate drawn from 17 analysts. The consensus estimate gives more weight to analysts who are more consistently accurate.
($1 = 1,429.6600 won)
(Reporting by Hyunjoo Jin and Joyce Lee; Editing by Edwina Gibbs and Christopher Cushing)
