LIG Nex1 reported a 69.6% jump in first-quarter operating profit as the South Korean defense contractor capitalized on major Middle Eastern missile system exports including its flagship “Korean Patriot” air defense system.
Operating profit reached 113.6 billion won ($85.1 million) while sales climbed 18.9% to 907.6 billion won ($680.3 million), the company announced Wednesday. The performance was bolstered by an order backlog that nearly tripled to 22.9 trillion won ($17.2 billion) in three years, fueled by exports of its Cheongung II medium-range missile system.
The guided weapons division, which includes the Cheongung II system exported to Iraq last year in a 3.7 trillion won ($2.8 billion) deal, saw sales surge 81.4% to 425.4 billion won ($318.8 million). First-quarter orders totaled 4.2 trillion won ($3.1 billion), with the company attributing much of the growth to the Iraq contract.
“We’ve established a K-air defense network connecting three Middle Eastern countries,” a company executive said, referencing previous Cheongung II sales to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
LIG Nex1 is pursuing further growth by expanding its defense portfolio beyond missiles to manned-unmanned combined systems across land, sea and air domains. The company recently secured an 83.4 billion won ($62.5 million) contract to develop a long-range artillery interception system and a 320.8 billion won ($240.5 million) deal for meteorological satellite development.
