On May 2, Doosan Infracore presented its first quarter results of W910.9 billion in sales, W79.8 billion in operating profit and W75.4 billion in ordinary profit on a parent basis to more than 150 analysts, institutional investors and journalists. The IR briefing was held at the Korea Stock Exchange in Seoul and also discussed the company’s vision.
  Sales grew 25.2% year on year, mainly due to increased exports of construction equipment and machine tools. The company’s strong competitiveness in the global market was evident as the higher-than-expected sales growth was achieved despite the sharply appreciating Won against the US Dollar.
  All the business groups except Industrial Vehicles saw improved profitability, and the company’s overall operating profit was up 31.6% year on year. Ordinary profit grew at a similar pace (30.9%) despite the lower equity method gains resulting from the conservative accounting procedures adopted at the end of last year to eliminate unrealized gains between the parent company and the overseas subsidiaries.
  Doosan Infracore’s targets for 2007 are just under W3.69 trillion in sales and W311.7 billion in operating profit. The company achieved 25% of the former and 26% of the latter targets during the first quarter, a solid performance that suggests steady growth for the year.
  After the performance briefing, a question-and-answer session was held so that participants could inquire about the market outlook and current status of the business groups. Fielding the questions were management personnel from Corporate Finance, Treasurer, Management Support, Accounting, International Finance and Strategic Planning.
  Analysts reiterated their positive view on Doosan Infracore after the briefing of the first quarter performance and 2007 outlook. Analysts from eight securities firms including Citigroup, released reports with higher target prices to an average of W34,171 and maintained their “Buy” recommendations.