(LEAD) Krafton Q1 net income jumps nearly 40 pct on solid PUBG demand

(LEAD) Krafton-Q1 earnings

(LEAD) Krafton Q1 net income jumps nearly 40 pct on solid PUBG demand

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SEOUL, April 30 (Yonhap) -- Krafton Inc., a South Korean game publisher known for its smash-hit title PUBG: Battlegrounds, said Thursday its first-quarter net profit rose nearly 40 percent from a year earlier driven by the solid performance of its flagship shooter title.

Its net profit came to 514.1 billion won (US$346.7 million) for the January-March period, up 38.4 percent from 371.5 billion won a year earlier, the company said in a regulatory filing.

The earnings beat market expectations. The average estimate of net profit by analysts stood at 336.2 billion won, according to a survey by Yonhap Infomax, the financial data firm of Yonhap News Agency.

Operating income also rose 22.8 percent on-year to a record 561.6 billion won, and sales jumped 56.9 percent to a record 1.37 trillion won.

Krafton attributed the sharp increase in the first-quarter earnings to strong performance of its PUBG franchise, whose sales rose 24 percent to over 1 trillion won. Its collaboration with the luxury car brand Aston Martin also supported the quarterly sales.

By segment, the mobile division sales jumped 32 percent on-year to 702.7 billion won, while the PC division sales increased 12.5 percent to 363.9 billion won.

Krafton said it plans to accelerate the expansion of its PUBG franchise at the global level by broadening user-generated content on the platform and strengthen marketing in emerging markets.

This photo, provided by Krafton Inc., shows a promotional image for PUBG: Battlegrounds. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)