LIG Defense & Aerospace (079550), also known as LIG D&A, posted sharply improved first-quarter earnings, driven by expanded exports including revenue recognition from Middle East shipments of the Cheongung-II (KM-SAM) air defense system.
LIG D&A reported preliminary consolidated operating profit of 171.1 billion won for the first quarter, up 56.1% from a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing Wednesday. Revenue over the same period rose 28.7% to 1.17 trillion won, while net profit climbed 69.4% to 135.4 billion won.
The share of export business in total revenue rose sharply to 34.7% in the first quarter from 20.4% a year earlier, contributing to improved profitability, according to the company's analysis.
However, Ghost Robotics, a subsidiary acquired in 2024, posted an operating loss of about 13 billion won.
By business segment, revenue from precision guided missiles (PGM) surged 62.0% year-on-year to 689 billion won, reflecting about 170 billion won in revenue recognized from the Cheongung-II project for the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The avionics and electronic warfare (AEW) segment grew 75.7% to 188.3 billion won, supported by the SATURN air-to-ground communication radio and mass production of the KF-21 fighter jet. In contrast, the command and control (C4I) segment fell 30.0% year-on-year to 156.6 billion won, and the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) segment declined 13.5% to 108.2 billion won.
The order backlog stood at 25.31 trillion won, down 920 billion won from 26.23 trillion won at the end of the previous quarter. Export backlog related to the Cheongung-II for the Middle East (UAE, Saudi Arabia and Iraq) amounted to 9.99 trillion won, accounting for about 39.5% of the total. New orders in the first quarter totaled 205.2 billion won.
