SEOUL, April 23 (Reuters) – Hyundai Motor reported a 31% drop in first-quarter operating profit on Thursday, meeting analysts’ estimates, as weaker demand in the Middle East and a recall of its Palisade SUV weighed on earnings.
Hyundai, which together with affiliate Kia Corp is the world’s third-biggest automaking group by sales, posted operating profit of 2.5 trillion won ($1.69 billion) for January-March, compared with 3.6 trillion won a year earlier.
That compared with a 2.5 trillion won LSEG SmartEstimate, which is weighted toward analysts who are more consistently accurate.
Hyundai said revenue rose 3.4% from a year earlier to 45.9 trillion won.
Shares of Hyundai were trading down 2% after the earnings announcement.
($1 = 1,481.1000 won)
(Reporting by Heejin Kim and Joyce Lee; Editing by Ed Davies and Christopher Cushing)
