SEOUL, Lotte Chilsung Beverage Co. on Monday reported its fourth-quarter net profit of 35.3 billion won (US$26.5 million), up 509 percent from a year earlier.

The company said in a regulatory filing that operating income for the October-December period fell 67.3 percent on-year to 8 billion won. Sales increased 37.3 percent to 918.4 billion won.

The earnings beat market expectations. The average estimate of net profit by analysts stood at 7.1 billion won, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.

Source: Yonhap News Agency