Coupang Korea reported consolidated operating profit of 2.29 trillion won for last year, up 40.9% from the previous year, the company said in a regulatory filing Monday.
Revenue for the same period rose 18.7% to 45.46 trillion won. Net profit increased 37% year-on-year to 1.59 trillion won.
By business segment, product sales including Rocket Delivery drove overall performance, recording 34.55 trillion won. Service revenue, which includes commissions and membership services, rose approximately 43.5% from the previous year to 9.13 trillion won.
Coupang Inc., the parent company of Coupang Korea, previously announced in late February that its full-year revenue totaled 49.12 trillion won ($34.53 billion), with operating profit of 679 billion won ($473 million). These figures include results from growth businesses such as the Korean subsidiary and Taiwan operations.
Coupang Korea also disclosed that it paid an interim dividend of 1.47 trillion won (5.02 million won per common share) last year to Coupang Inc., which holds 100% of the Korean subsidiary's shares.
The company explained that this capital is unrelated to operating profit earned domestically and originates from investments raised overseas in the past. According to Coupang, a portion of the share premium (approximately 2.75 trillion won) generated when Coupang Inc. injected overseas-raised investment capital into the Korean subsidiary through paid-in capital increases was converted to retained earnings, and part of this was used as the dividend source. Coupang had previously offset its accumulated deficit of 3.47 trillion won against share premium of 6.22 trillion won, then transferred the remainder to retained earnings.
"The accumulated investment capital remaining after Coupang invested 6 trillion won domestically to build more than 100 fulfillment centers in Korea was used as a source for global reinvestment," a Coupang official said. "This was paid to Coupang Inc. in the first half of last year as investment capital for global growth businesses including Taiwan's Rocket Delivery logistics infrastructure."
The official added, "We plan to establish a foothold for expanding exports by Korean small and medium-sized businesses through global investments including in Taiwan."
