Hyundai Motor slips to 11th straight profit drop over strike, weak sales

Hyundai Motor Co's quarterly net profit slipped for the 11th consecutive quarter, missing estimates, as the South Korean automaker was hit by a protracted strike and its poorest period of sales in four years.

The world's fifth-biggest automaker, together with affiliate Kia Motors Corp, said on Wednesday net profit for the third quarter ended September fell 10% to 1.06 trillion won ($935 million or Rs 62,449 crore). That trailed a consensus forecast of 1.3 trillion won, according to 19 analysts polled by Reuters. Hyundai warned it expects tough times ahead: business uncertainty will persist for the time being, it said, citing a slowdown in advanced markets and a slump in emerging countries. The results came a day after Hyundai said about 1,000 executives will take a 10 % pay cut to reflect the severity of the slump. Earnings fell even though the comparison period a year earlier was weak - in third-quarter 2015, profit slid nearly a quarter on slack China sales. Hyundai shares were down nearly 2% after the earnings announcement, versus the market's 1.5 % fall, before trimming losses. The firm said global shipments dropped 3 % to 1.085 million vehicles for the third quarter from the same period a year earlier, squeezed by weak demand at home after tax breaks on new car purchases expired in June.

The automaker's domestic factories were hit by sporadic strike action from July to September in what was its worst-ever labour dispute. Management and union leaders reached a deal to resolve the issue earlier this month - but not before Hyundai lost output of about 140,000 vehicles, worth around 3 trillion won in potential sales. Earlier this month, Hyundai replaced the heads of both its South Korean and China operations, after market share losses in both key markets.