Results at 2 SK firms for 2003 differ sharply

SK Telecom earned 1.9 trillion won ($1.6 billion) on record sales of 9.5 trillion won last year, the company said announcing last year’s results yesterday. Both sales and net income of the biggest mobile telecom company in Korea are record highs. Its sales was 8.6 trillion won in 2002 and its net income was 1.5 trillion won. Its ordinary profit was 2.7 trillion won last year, compared with 2.2 trillion won in 2002. “Increased volume of calls and growing use of mobile Internet contributed to better sales,” SK Telecom said. The company will announce details including sales from different sources next Friday. SK Telecom said it would pay 5,500 won per share in dividend. SK Corp., the SK Group’s oil refinery, said it recorded 13.8 trillion won in sales in 2003, up 3 percent from 2002. It had 676 billion won in operating profit, up 74 percent, but its net income was 8.8 billion won, a drop of a whopping 94 percent from 2002. The company said its operating profit sharply increased because of good sales but that financial woes in its affiliate, SK Networks, formerly known as SK Global, eroded its net profit. by Yum Tae-jung, Kim Seung-hyun